


The Legend Written in Ashes: Act 1 - Born from Ashes

by LieutenantKer



Series: The Legend Written in Ashes [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Fan Characters, Gen, Multi, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-06
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-13 08:16:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4514622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LieutenantKer/pseuds/LieutenantKer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An old prophecy connects the lineage of a prestigious family to an impending disaster, and political machinations result in relationships and loyalties being strained. </p><p>This is the story of about five-hundred Naruto fan characters. Loosely follows the canon storyline. All canon characters are paired with original characters, except for Asuma/Kurenai and Naruto/Hinata. Focuses mostly on non-romantic relationships, but they are there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Act 1 Prologue: The Blind Seer

The old blind woman felt in front of her to find what felt like two ceramic pots. The lids were cold as if they had been untouched for some time, but the bottom of the pots were warm, like they had been handled. They were clean and not a speck of dust was on them, which led the woman to believe that the ashes contained in the urns were people of importance.

“Did you bring the blood as well?” The blind woman asked.

Without a word, the young man sitting in front of her reached into his pockets and withdrew two small vials of blood and placed them on the table between the urns. The woman picked up the vials and asked again, “And this blood belongs to the same people as the ashes in the urns, yes?”

“Yes.” The young man responded. His voice was deep, and the blind woman could almost feel his vocal cords vibrate from where she was sitting.

She reached for a small bowl and sat it between the urns and the vials of blood. “To whom do these remains belong?”

Without hesitation, the young man said, “Tsukinowa Hyuuzu and her husband, Kurotaka Hyuuzu.”

“So I see that I am in the presence of legends today. I thought there was a heavy feeling in the air…” the woman chuckled and proceeded to open both of the urns. “Are you absolutely sure you want me to go through with this?”

“Yes.” The young man replied without hesitation again.

“Very well. If anyone from your family claims that I have defiled the remains of your Matriarch, then it is on your head instead of mine.” The blind woman let out a chuckle before she took a pinch of ashes from both of the urns and placed them in the bowl. She swirled the ashes around with her finger before emptying the vials of blood on top of the ashes and then mixed them together using what appeared to be an ordinary piece of stone. “If you want to remember what I’ve said, boy, you might want to write it down. I won’t be writing it down for you.”

There was a rustling of papers as the young man took a scroll and some ink out of his cloak and laid it before himself as to record what the Seer was about to tell him. The woman placed the bowl of blood and ashes before her and dipped her middle finger into it. She held her finger above the bowl and let the blood drip off of her finger and back into the bowl. The thick, crimson liquid rippled like a still lake that had a crimson stone thrown into it. She tilted her head back and began to speak as if she was in a trance, or someone was speaking through her.

“Through the blood of those who came before us, we can follow where life will take us. Through the ashes of those who have left us, we can find the light to guide us onward. Through the blood of a Matriarch and her Beloved, I can see … darkness. I see bloodshed. I see death. I see great destruction that will befall a clan of great size and great power. There is nothing that can be done to avert this massacre. This is written in blood.”

The young man recording the woman’s speech flinched as she mentioned a bloody massacre, but he said nothing.

The woman continued, “The Matriarch will return to the living and raise her family to greatness. She will breathe life back into the clan that has fallen, and walk forward to greatness. I see light and I see compassion. This is written in ashes.”

The blind woman lowered her head from the trance, her empty eyes staring straight ahead as if to pierce the young man’s soul with a gaze of daggers even though the man knew that she was blind. After silence, the woman asked, “Does something about the vision trouble you, dear?”

“No.” The man replied without hesitation. She felt the slight shake in his movements that suggested that he was troubled and lying.

“Are you sure that Tsukinowa Hyuuzu and Kurotaka Hyuuzu were of the same kin, boy?” The woman asked.

The man hesitated this time. Why would the Seer ask such a question? “Yes, I’m positive.” He replied slowly.

“Interesting.” The woman mused. “There were two figures in my vision though one seemed to stand behind the figure of the Matriarch. It was standing in the background, and I couldn’t tell who it was. Perhaps when she returns, the person that figure belongs to will be her partner, or her lover. Who really knows, for sure?” The woman laughed. “No one can see a prophecy before it happens. You only connect the dots afterward.”

The young man made the note of the old woman seeing two figures. He thought for a minute, looking over what he wrote down, twiddling the ink brush between his fingers. Cautiously, he asked, “What do you mean when you say ‘the Matriarch will return’?”

The woman shrugged. “It could mean many things. Either your Matriarch will quite literally arise from the dead or her otherworldly form will be reincarnated into another. Who knows? Our world works in mysterious ways.” She replaced the lids of both of the urns and slid them back towards the man. “You can return these to their mausoleum before anyone notices that you have taken them. I would work swiftly, I don’t know how the Hyuuzu clan would react to see that the ashes of their Matriarch was missing from their resting place.”

The young man’s yellow eyes blinked several times as he walked out of the darkness of the woman’s tent and into daylight. When his eyes got adjusted to the light, he looked over the scroll several times before shaking his head and shoving it into his bag with the two urns of ashes. He had consulted with a fortune teller in a traveling caravan for answers regarding his clan’s future but instead left with more questions than before. It comforted him to think that the old woman was crazy, but he wondered if his fellow clansmen would think the same when he brought them word of the woman’s prediction.


	2. Act 1: Chapter 1 - An Introduction to the Heroine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hyourin Hyuuzu is the daughter of a prestigious family and has high expectations pending for her, but she is met with an obstacle that may prevent her from walking forward.

The Hyuuzu clan lived in a magnificent estate pushed into the outskirts of Konohagakure. It was made entirely of tiles of black and white marble and in the center of the estate was a great meeting hall, one that was always put to use by the high-ranking members of the clan. Hyourin Hyuuzu was the daughter of Jiro Hyuuzu, the Head Protector of the Hyuuzu clan. That morning, he was in a meeting. An important meeting, one that Hyourin was not allowed to attend, even considering she was first in line to take her father’s position and had a need to understand how the clan worked. She hated not being allowed into the meeting.

Not being allowed in did not stop her from eavesdropping on the meeting, which she did whenever there was a meeting she could not observe. All the meetings she attended were usually boring, but the ones she wasn’t allowed into usually had far more interesting discussion topics. She had a routine that she had practiced for years. It had never failed her and it was perfect for avoiding the guards stationed inside the building that would prevent her from walking into the meeting hall. The meeting hall was in the same building as the dojo, and she, a young Genin, easily walked into the building to get to the dojo. Hyourin told the guards she wanted to practice in the dojo and none of them questioned her. She walked into the locker room next to the dojo, made sure no one was around to see her, and climbed on top of the wooden lockers. From the top of the lockers she climbed up on a large, wooden beam that ran the length of the building, with just enough space between the beam, the ceiling, and the bamboo screens that separated the rooms for her to crawl out of the locker room, through the hallways, and into the meeting hall.

The ceiling in the meeting hall was much higher than that of the rest of the building, and Hyourin decided it wasn’t a good idea to stay so low to the ground where it’d be easier for her to be seen. She climbed up from the large beam closer to the ceiling in the meeting hall. The beams were smaller, but it was darker and she was less likely to be seen. From her perch on the high beams, she leaned over slightly so she could see the meeting down below. The young girl had to steady herself repeatedly so she would not fall.

She recognized her father, Jiro, immediately. He had short, black hair and welcoming, yellow eyes, and he was wearing rectangular glasses that day. She recognized a few of the other men sitting next to him, as they had attended meetings before, but there were a couple of faces she did not recognize. Hyourin couldn’t lean over to take a better look to see them due to risk of being caught eavesdropping. She could, however, make out a man sitting near her father who appeared to be dressed in the men’s guard uniform, which stood out to her. Why would a member of the Yang guard be attending a meeting of Head Protectors? She decided that her question could be answered if she listened in.

Jiro turned to the man dressed in the guard uniform and said, “I received your letter and urgently called for a meeting, Asamoya.”

The man in the guard uniform — Asamoya — bowed his head. “Thank you, Jiro-sama,” he said. “I do think the matter I’ve come here to discuss is urgent.” His uniform was well-kept and he was sitting very stiff. Hyourin thought he looked nervous.

“Is it about your father?” Asked a tall man with a magnificent beard and a face covered in scars. Hyourin recognized him immediately as Kazangan, the Head Protector of the Iwagakure branch of the Hyuuzu clan.

“My father is ill and bed-ridden,” replied Asamoya, “and he is unfit for travel, but no. The matter I want to bring to attention today is not about him.”

“Speak, then.” Demanded a very stern voice. It was from Sabureko, the Head Protector of the Sunagakure branch of the Hyuuzu clan. She was a very intimidating woman who wore thick eyeliner and blood red lipstick. Hyourin was positive that every member of her clan living in Sunagakure was terrified of Sabureko. “You can’t call us to a meeting for an urgent matter and then speak of something as petty as your father’s health.”

Hyourin saw Asamoya twitch slightly. She could tell he didn’t appreciate Sabureko insulting his ill father, but did not say anything. "Members from the Kirigakure branch of the Hyuuzu clan have been disappearing, without a trace,” he said. “They leave for missions given to them by the Mizukage and their squads return without them. Their teammates tell us they have no clue what happened to them or why they mysteriously vanished. Most of them seemed … genuinely concerned at the notice that their comrades have been disappearing, so I do not hold them at fault. Some of our clan leave our estate beneath the lake outside the village, and then never return. No one has seen them leave or vanish. The Mizukage declares them deceased, and no one questions it further, but we haven’t been given any bodies to burn.”

The room grew quiet rather quickly after Asamoya was finished speaking. This was common, as the Head Protectors were processing what Asamoya had said. The first person to speak after he was done speaking was Yoinokuchi, the Head Protector from Takigakure. Hyourin thought most of the time he was a silly man, but he took himself rather seriously in meetings. “You don’t think the residents of Kirigakure have finally caught on about the Ayatsurihi, do you?” The Ayatsurihi was the kekkei genkai of the Hyuuzu clan. It allowed members of the Hyuuzu clan to manipulate flames while slowly draining chakra so they wouldn’t have to continually use fire ninjutsu and use up great quantities of chakra. The Ayatsurihi made it so they would not have to waste more chakra than was needed, and could continue to use their flames without too large a cost, while also giving them the ability to steal an opponent’s fire techniques and using them. Another benefit of the kekkei genkai was a resistance to heat and flames. However, the village of Kirigakure had a particular stigma against clans with kekkei genkai and viewed them negatively. As a result, the members of the Hyuuzu clan living in Kirigakure had to hide their kekkei genkai and practice using it in secret. If those in Kirigakure that opposed kekkei genkai had found out about the Hyuuzu clan’s abilities, it could bode ill for those living there.

“No, I don’t.” Asamoya replied. “But the rumors are slowly getting worse because we cannot dispel them no matter how hard we try. They will not listen to reason and the Mizukage refuses to support us. We are far from being the least popular clan in Kirigakure, but I fear that if things continue to go downhill, we could be. We may be facing an impending massacre, or at least an attempt at one, like what happened to the Yuki and the Sato clans.”

Another man spoke up. He was short, with green eyes and shaggy hair. He was new, as Hyourin did not recognize his voice or his face (what little of it she could make out from high on the rafters). “Is there nothing you can do, Asamoya?” She guessed he was the new Head Protector of the Kusagakure branch, given that the previous one passed away recently, but she couldn’t remember the new one’s name.

“I’ve been thinking of a couple solutions, and I think we can try to get favor from the Fukyuu clan.” Asamoya mused. “The Fukyuu clan controls a large portion of the village’s economy, they’re incredibly popular among the village’s residents, and they can provide us with protection … but given the Fukyuu clan’s track record with alliances, I fear we may have to give a few of our women up to work in the Fukyuu clan’s brothel, like the women of the Enka and the Fushin clans.” He hesitated for a minute before finishing, “I’m not sure I can condemn the women of my clan to something like that.”

“Then don’t. Simple as that,” said Sabureko bluntly. "Show them you mean business and beat them into submission. Make them fear you.” She shrugged. “It’s what I do. That’s why my name carries weight in Suna.”

“None of us approve of your particular methods, Sabureko.” Yoinokuchi replied. “We gain no favors beating village officials and civilians into submission. In Kiri’s case, I think all it would do is make us look worse.”

“I agree.” said Kazangan. “An alliance would make more sense and gain us more favor than twisting the Mizukage’s arm and beating civilians into complacency.”

Sabureko scoffed and folded her arms. “You’re all too soft.”

Anya, the Head Protector from Amegakure and a woman who always seemed to look and sound sad, said, “I know how the Fukyuu clan’s business works, Asamoya. You could broker with them without having to turn all the Hyuuzu women living in Kirigakure into brothel workers. They need miners, body guards, and bouncers as much as they want brothel workers. Fukyuu men tend to be skinny and scrawny while our men are strong and muscular. The Fukyuu clan also runs a jewelry business, correct? Perhaps you can give them the dragon scales we sweep up from the floors of the hatcheries to make jewelry with. I do think you could arrange an alliance like that without condemning us to sexual servitude if you and Mufun play your cards right.” Hyourin thought the triangle tattoos beneath Anya’s eyes made it look like she was always crying.

Asamoya thought about Anya’s proposal for a minute before nodding his head, and mused aloud, “That could work.” He thought in silence for a few more minutes before he started to rub his temples and said, “This would all be easier if Minowa Fujiwara hadn’t left Kirigakure. The Fujiwara clan may not be powerful, but at least they were allies. Now they have no sense of unison.”

“Minowa Fujiwara was a friend of mine when he came to Konoha,” said Jiro, “he’s been missing for some time now, and his wife tells me it’s because the Fujiwara clan’s run out of money and Minowa is trying to find a way to make the Fujiwara clan rich and powerful again.”

At the mention of the Fujiwara clan, Hyourin decided that the interesting part of the meeting was over. Jiro, Kazangan, and Yoinokuchi began talking among themselves and Hyourin heard her father ask Kazangan how old his daughters were. She climbed back down to the low beam and crawled back to the dojo’s locker room, and then ran out of the building. The Yang guards watched her run towards the gates and down the path away from the estate. She made her way to the other side of the village where there was a small, open field with a stream flowing through the middle of it with a tree stump next to the stream. Her teammate, Tatsu Fujiwara, was sitting on the stump with his arms crossed. Hyourin sat next to him.

His eyes were closed. “You’re late.” He said.

“I don’t see Nakamora or sensei anywhere.” Hyourin replied, as she crossed her arms and her legs and pressed her backside against Tatsu’s shoulder.

“They’re late, too.” Tatsu sighed. “I was the first one here. Now move over, I was sitting here first.”

“I called dibs on this stump when Rei-sensei first brought us here when we became a team.” Hyourin said sternly while she used her shoulder to push against Tatsu some more. “It’s my stump.”

“That doesn’t make it your stump,” said Tatsu as he pushed back against Hyourin.

Hyourin pushed her back hard against Tatsu’s shoulder, “Hey, Tatsu, is your father named Minowa Fujiwara?”

Tatsu stopped pushing and turned to face Hyourin and angrily asked, “How do you know that name? What the hell do you want to know about that bastard?” Hyourin then put her hands against Tatsu’s chest and shoved him off of the tree stump and into the stream.

He fell face-first into the water and he was soaking wet and dripping with water when he reared his head back up to shout, “You bitch!” at Hyourin. Hyourin grinned as she crossed her legs up on the tree stump and snickered loudly as she took up more than enough room for one person. “I was sitting there first!” His black hair was dripping wet as he got out of the stream, the hair pulled up on the back of his head threatening to loosen and the hair covering his left eye making him look like a drenched cat. His narrow, obsidian eyes glared at her as he put hand signs together to drain the water out of his wet, green clothes clothes and hair. Hyourin observed that Tatsu was always rather concerned with how he looked, though whenever she confronted him about it he would deny it.

“I called dibs on the stump on day one.” Hyourin crossed her arms. “I sat here when Rei-sensei was asking us personal questions to get to know us. I sat here when she told us we passed her test. It’s my stump. I even carved my name on it.” With her foot, she gestured to a part of the stump where her name was carved into the bark.

Without looking at where Hyourin was pointing, Tatsu said dully, “Along with the name of that weird guy you hang out with, with hearts drawn all around it. Or did you write your names under an umbrella?” said Tatsu dully.

“I did not, you’re just making shit up now!” Hyourin shouted in immediate response. “It’s not even like that between us!”

Tatsu had opened his mouth to speak again when someone came running up to the stump and said, “I’m sorry I’m late, everyone!”

It was Nakamora Haruka, their third teammate. He had short, orange hair and big, shimmering green eyes. He walked up to them with a pout on his face. He was somewhat of a wimp, Hyourin thought, as he seemed not to enjoy fighting or conflict in general, and he didn’t seem all that smart, but he had a good heart, she supposed. For a wimpy idiot.

“She started it,” Tatsu scoffed accusingly.

"He was sitting on my stump,” said Hyourin.

"Then why don’t you share the stump?” suggested Nakamora.

“There’s not enough room for me and her fat ass on it,” Tatsu replied.

"No, there’s not enough room for Tatsu’s enormous ego on my stump,” said Hyourin.

"MY enormous ego?” Tatsu turned around to face her, offended. “You’re one to talk! Your ego is way bigger than mine!”

“Would you two please stop that?” Nakamora pleaded, sitting down on the ground next to Tatsu.

Before the argument between the three could continue and escalate, their Jounin instructor, Rei Hasu, interrupted them. She approached them out of seemingly nowhere with her short, black hair and welcoming blue eyes. “You were arguing again!” She scolded them. “I could hear your petty disagreement from across the village! You have to stop this!” Rei’s voice was gentle, and what was supposed to sound stern only sounded forced.

Tatsu closed his eyes and leaned back against the stump and said, "Hyourin’s huge ego and her fat ass started it.”

Hyourin glared at the Fujiwara boy, “Tatsu was sitting on my stump.”

Nakamora looked up at Rei and nodded in embarrassment. She sighed, shook her head, and rubbed her temples. “You have got to stop this!”

Hyourin ignored the conversation and looked up at her teacher, “What did you call us here for, Rei-sensei?”

The short-haired woman let out a long sigh, and Hyourin watched as her fingers fiddled beneath her long, light green sleeves. “Oh, right. That.” She said, nervously. Hyourin liked Rei and admired her, but she seemed to lack confidence, and always looked and sounded nervous. “It’s about the upcoming Chuunin exams.”

Tatsu raised his eyebrows in interest, Hyourin’s yellow-green eyes lit up with excitement, and Nakamora tilted his head in confusion. “Chuunin exams?” The three asked in unison.

“Yes,” said Rei. "The Chuunin exams. They take place in just a few weeks, and they’ll determine which Genin will pass to the rank of Chuunin. Surely you have siblings and other family members that have taken the exams before, right?”

“Are we going to be taking the Chuunin exams?” Hyourin asked excitedly. Finally there arose a chance to prove that she was better than both of her teammates. She could see it in her mind, clear as day: She was going to excel in the exams and pass into the Chuunin rank while both of her useless comrades were left behind as Genin.

Hyourin’s stomach sank as she watched Rei take in a deep breath. Rei was preparing herself to deliver bad news. “About that…” Rei started. She took in a deep breath and put her arms down in front of her to look composed, “I have decided not to enter Team Six in the Chuunin exams.”

“Why not?” Nakamora asked in disappointment.

“That’s not fair!” Hyourin shouted immediately.

Tatsu said nothing, but looked away from his team in disappointment.

Rei raised her hands in defense. “Clam down!” She squeaked. “You were arguing over something as petty as a tree stump this morning!” She took in another deep breath. “You do meet the requirements, yes. As individuals, I am proud of you, and I think you are all capable of passing the stages of the exam that evaluate you individually, but there are stages of the exam that require flawless teamwork and I simply don’t think you’re ready for such a crucial requirement of cooperation.”

“Then fuck these two losers!” Hyourin argued. “I can enter by myself, without them!”

Rei shook her head. “Trust me, there’s no way you could make it by yourself, Hyourin. None of you could. You need each other in order to make it. Each of you holds some sort of resentment towards your teammates for one reason or another, and you have to leave those resentments behind if you want to succeed.”

The black-haired girl jumped to her feet and kicked the roots of the tree stump angrily. She shouted, “this is fucking bullshit!” and stormed off and away from the training field in fury.

“Hyourin!” Rei called after her student, “Come back, we have to work on this!”

Hyourin ignored Rei. She didn’t care anymore. All she could hear was the heavy pounding in her heart as she marched towards her mother’s tea shop. The pounding didn’t stop even she slumped into her booth in the back of the tea shop behind the screen, and took a few sips of black tea.

She took the metal protector off of her forehead and rubbed where it was. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. She knew in the back of her mind that Rei was right, and she was frustrated with herself and the two morons she was stuck with. She was even uncertain as to how this would be seen with her clan. Hyourin was next in line to be the Hyuuzu clan’s Head Protector, and she had not been allowed to enter her first attempt at the Chuunin exam. What would this mean for her in the eyes of her clan, when she had been previously regarded as a prodigy?

Hyourin continued to stew in her jumbled thoughts until she heard someone slump into the seat across from her. She didn’t need to look up to see who it was. She waited, and no one spoke to her. She looked up to see Sasuke Uchiha sitting in front of her, staring at the screen that separated the private booth from the rest of the shop. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that she had raised her head and asked, “Are you going to be taking the Chuunin exam?”

“No.” She replied dully, before she took a sip of tea. He raised his eyebrows without saying anything and she continued, “Rei-sensei said some bullshit about the two losers I’m stuck with not being able to get along with each other.”

Sasuke asked, “Did she say anything about teamwork being a requirement for the exam?”

“Something like that.” Hyourin put her cup down. “It’s bullshit, though. I should be able to take it by myself if my teammates aren’t ready.”

He looked at her, “You’re skilled, but you shouldn’t be giving yourself that much credit.”

“Like you’re one to talk,” she scoffed.


	3. Act 1: Chapter 2 - An Introduction to the Broken Woman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rei-sensei seems to lack for confidence. What reason could a woman of her rank possibly have to be afraid of?

Rei Hasu listened carefully whenever she walked the busy streets of Konohagakure. She walked slow to weave between people on her way down the paths, but she also walked slow in order to hear pieces of their conversations and what she could infer from them. She overheard one woman say to another, “When should I tell him?” which told Rei that the woman was either pregnant or or being unfaithful to her spouse, and that the person she was talking to was a close friend or her lover. The response from the other woman was, “Whenever you’re ready, but you can’t wait forever … it’d be better for you to tell him rather for him to find out by accident.” So it was infedelity. Rei glanced at the two women out of the corner of her eye as she handed the money for melonpan to a street vendor and saw the two ladies’ hands touch, and she knew they were lovers. She pulled a small notebook out of a hidden pouch in one of her sleeves as if to make a note of the transaction with the street vendor, but instead she made a hasty description of the two women and their situation.

Her skills of deduction and observation were critical for a ninja and listening in on petty conversations in the street made for good practice, but the truth was it was her creative inspiration. She loved to write stories and loved to write what was sometimes considered over-exaggerated social drama, and from what she heard on the streets, she knew her stories were well-loved. No one could have recognized her by name or by face, however, as she submitted her work to the publisher anonymously and under a pen name. She wanted to write her stories and she wanted people to read them, but she did not want the popularity and attention that came with that. Writing was Rei’s form of stress relief, and she did not need the added stress that came with popularity. She also didn’t think she was capable of handling the popularity that came with being a famous writer.

She thanked the street vendor for her melonpan, and continued to walk down the street. Rei soon found herself distracted by the nearby sound of a small, black dog barking. She continued walking forward while looking to her side and behind her for the source of the barking, but when she turned back to face forward, she didn’t have enough time to stop herself from walking into what looked and felt like a large, deep green pillar of muscle that smelled sharply of pine trees. It was a familiar smell.

“I’m sorry!” Rei squeaked as she recoiled from the muscular gentleman she ran into. “I didn’t mean to-”

The man turned around. “Don’t worry, Rei!” It was a fellow Jounin that Rei was quite familiar with by the name of Maito Gai. He put his hands on Rei’s shoulders, and she felt as though she was going to collapse under the weight. Her face turned pink. “I’m sure it was a mistake. I don’t think I’ve seen you in a while, how have you and your team been doing?”

“Ah…” Rei hesitated for a minute. She didn’t really know how to respond, or if she should respond honestly or politely to continue the conversation. “I’ve been good. My team has been good.” She nodded her head as she spoke.

“That’s great! My team’s going to be entering the Chuunin exams this year. What about yours? Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma have already entered their teams.”

Rei took in a deep breath and a short pause before she said, “I’m not entering my team in the exam this year.” She paused briefly, “I don’t think they’re ready for it yet.”

Gai nodded his head in understanding. She knew he would understand. “If not this year, then I’m sure they’ll be ready next year.”

The petite woman smiled and nodded. “I’m sure they will be, too.”

The two stood and chatted for a while. They were old friends, and it had been some time since the last time they had gotten a chance to speak with one another. Eventually, Rei had to leave, because although she had exempted her students from the Chuunin exams, she was intent on making sure they trained as hard as they possibly could for the next year’s exam. When she arrived at the training ground she designated for her students to find that they had already arrived, and Hyourin was being very vocal about her discontent.

“This is bullshit!” Hyourin’s voice was loud, and Rei wondered if there was anyone nearby that could hear it. “We qualify for the exams, we’re more than ready for them!” She kicked the tree stump that Tatsu and Nakamora were sitting on.

“And how, exactly, do you know that?” Tatsu sneered at her. “You’ve never seen a Chuunin exam, have you?”

There was a pause. “No.” Hyourin admitted, but the confidence did not wane from her voice. “But neither have you, or any of the other people from our class entering! And literally EVERYONE ELSE is entering EXCEPT FOR US! That means even if none of us pass, or none of them pass, they’re still going to have more experience in the exam than we do, and they’ll have an advantage over us! I can’t let that happen, there’s no way I’m going to fall behind because of your and Nakamora’s incompetence.”

"Could the two of you please stop arguing?” Nakamora pleaded. “Please?” He got to his feet and placed his hands on Tatsu and Hyourin’s shoulders.

“My incompetence?” Tatsu shrugged his shoulder away from Nakamora’s hand. “You should take a good look in the mirror.”

Hyourin violently shoved Nakamora’s hand off of her shoulder and said, “I shouldn’t have to deal with either of you.”

Rei had to step in between them, and she pushed Tatsu and Hyourin away from one another. “You’re all welcome to be upset about not being entered in the exams, especially when the rest of your classmates are,” she said, “but you’re going to stay Genin forever if you keep having like this.” She took a pause, and then a deep breath, “Now sit down so we can talk about some things.”

There was a glare in her eye, but after Hyourin mumbled some swear under her breath she managed to sit down and squeeze herself onto the tree stump between Tatsu and Nakamora, but she managed to take up most of the room and left Tatsu and Nakamora only a little bit of room to sit. Rei sighed and took in another deep breath. She felt embarrassed that she had to prepare herself for every time she wanted to talk to her students to tell them something they didn’t want to hear, but it was the only way, and she’d never find the confidence she needed if she didn’t push herself.

“Yes, I’ve made my decision,” she said, “that you will not be entering the Chuunin exams this year.” She paused. Rei had expected her students to groan loudly or whine, but they remained silent and tentative to her words. She continued, “but, for the next year, we’re all going to train as hard as we can. When the exam rolls around next year, you’ll all be more than ready,”

Much to Rei’s suprirse, Nakamora was the first to speak when he asked, “How are we going to be more than ready for the exams next year when we’re not entering at all this year?”

“You’re going to train. ” Rei told him. “You’re going to train, and you’re going to work as hard as you possibly can. Most importantly, you’re going to learn how to work as a team. And when you’re done, you’ll all come out of the Chuunin exams as, well, Chuunin.”

“But that’s so lame!” Hyourin protested immediately. “Why can’t I just enter by myself?! I don’t need either of these morons, they’ll just drag me down!”

“I’m pretty sure I’d do better if I didn’t have to put up with her,” said Tatsu.

Rei sighed, in response she asked, “Hyourin, you have a friend that is one of Kakashi’s students, yes?”

Hyourin raised an eyebrow, “Yeah, what about him?”

“When the Chuunin exams are over,” said Rei, “ask him if he had to cooperate with his teammates to get through, or if he could have handled it on his own.”

Hyourin thought about it for a minute before saying, “I’m actually more than positive he’ll tell me he would have been able to handle the exams himself, that his teammates got in the way, and that I would have been able to handle it on my own.”

Rei forced a smile, “I’m not so sure about that…” She took a deep breath and then excitedly put her hands together. “Anyway!!! Today I’m going to run you through a few exercises and see where we are after that! Please try to find a way to synergize your abilities, okay?”

The team trained for the remainder of the afternoon, and Rei observed them. Tatsu and Hyourin had the techniques of the Fujiwara and Hyuuzu clans, which was expected of two heirs to two of the largest clans in the world; but Nakamora seemed to be left behind, without any sort of abilities from his clan, even though she knew that Nakamora was the son of two great clans from Konohagakure. Nakamora did not seem to know beyond the basic techniques taught to students of the academy, but Tatsu and Hyourin knew far much more, and had likely been trained by their parents or older siblings. Rei was curious as to why this was, as Nakamora’s mother was from the Haruka clan, a clan that prided itself on its genjutsu abilities (and it’s ludicrous amounts of money), while his father was from the Nageki clan, a clan that specialized in Earth-based ninjutsu abilities.

The beginning of the exercises started out fine: the three seemed to work together well (albeit without saying a single word to one another), but as the day progressed, it fell apart. They did alright not speaking to one another, but when communication was needed, Hyourin and Tatsu argued over how things should be going and who should be leading, while Nakamora pleaded with them to compromise and get along. Eventually Nakamora attempted to offer suggestions to help Tatsu and Hyourin get along, and they would blame Nakamora for not being able to enter the Chuunin exams because he was clearly not as strong or smart as either of them. When the day was over, Rei had a better idea how to gauge her students’ abilities than she did before, but she was also full of questions that stemmed from things she did not notice before, and also frustrated that all three of them seemed to blame each other for dragging each other down.

Questions, it seemed, would have to wait for later. The three students left as soon as they didn’t have to stay any longer, and Rei was left in the field by herself. She let out a long sigh and collapsed onto the tree stump. She had a rough situation on her hands, a rough road ahead of her, and she was skeptical as to whether or not she could handle it. She let out an exasperated sigh, covered her face with her hands and pressed her fingers against her forehead for a minute or so before she retrieved her book and pen from her pockets and began to write down all the questions she had about her students: Why Nakamora seemed to be further behind in ability than either of his teammates, what his strengths were compared to Tatsu and Hyourin, why Tatsu and Hyourin were constantly at each other’s throats, why Tatsu and Hyourin seemed more independent than Nakamora, why Nakamora didn’t seem as inclined to conflict as Tatsu and Hyourin did, and why Tatsu and Hyourin blamed not being able to enter the Chuunin exams on Nakamora.

Rei had just finished writing down her final questions and closed her book when an unfortunately familiar voice sounded from behind her, “Having some problems with your students, Rei-sensei?”

Rei dropped her book and pen to the ground and froze. She could have gone her entire life without ever having to hear that cold, condescending voice again. She slowly and stiffly retrieved her book and pen from the ground and tucked them away in her pockets before cautiously rising to her feet and slowly turning around. “Raiju.” She breathed. She could feel her eyes opening wide and her legs shaking underneath her.

A messy-haired man stepped out from the shadow of the trees surrounding the clearing and into the afternoon light. He wore the uniform of a Konohagakure Jounin, and his cold green eyes sent a chill down Rei’s spine. “I thought for sure you had forgotten me, sister.”

She said, “I haven’t.” Though it was not due to lack of trying to forget, and she wanted nothing more than to forget. She instinctively stepped back and away from him, and she did not break eye contact with him.

Raiju let out a snide chuckle. “I heard a rumor that you’ve exempted your students from the Chuunin exams. Is this true?”

“Yes.” Rei’s long sleeves concealed her hands, but beneath them her fists were clenching and she could feel the her fingers sticking together with sweat. “I simply don’t think they’re ready for that kind of challenge, and they need to spend more time preparing.”

“I guess it’s no surprise why you, of all people, exempted your students from the exam.” Raiju circled around the large tree stump, and Rei continued to recoil and mirror her brother’s movements in order to stay away from him. “I exempted my students, as well. For the second year in a row. They didn’t take it very well, but naturally they had to accept it and move on.”

“Two years in a row…? Why? That’s kind of pointless and it doesn’t seem like you. I thought for sure you’d be pushing them for…whatever twisted reason you saw fit to pursue.”

“No, no, you don’t understand, dear sister…I’ve exempted them from the exam because their first real test is how they hold against your pathetic training methods. What exactly are you teaching them? Are you teaching them your medical techniques? Do all they know how to do is heal wounds? Are you teaching them useless ideals like love and peace? I doubt you could ever teach those kids anything of real merit to a Shinobi, how did you even get promoted to a Jounin in the first place?”

Rei closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. “That does sound more like you.” She could feel her shoulders shaking and she could feel the tears swelling in her eyes.

“So how about a wager, little sister? Since we’ve both exempted our students from entering the Chuunin exams, how about, when the finals of the exams are being held, your team will fight mine. If your team wins, I will go about my life as if you never existed; and if I win, I get to do with you as I please…or I can kill you, if I think that’s what you deserve.”

“What have I ever done to you to warrant this?!” Rei was blinking back tears in her eyes. She had backed her way into a tree and had no where else to go. She had no idea what to do to get away from this man and she wanted nothing more in that moment than to vanish from existence.

“Have you forgotten, stupid girl?” Raiju walked towards her. “Our mother died, because of you! Our father died, because of you! Everything bad that’s ever happened, because of you! Everything is your fault, and you deserve to be punished for it! You can’t go on with your life acting as if you’re not responsible for any of this!”

“I never did anything!” Rei cried out, “How could I have killed mother when I never even knew her? I couldn’t have killed father when not even the most skilled medics in the village knew what to diagnose him with?”

“Such a likely excuse to hide your obvious guilt.” The raven-haired man pinned his younger sister to the tree. “Do we have a deal, or not?”

Rei looked up at Raiju. Tears were streaming down her cheeks from her eyes and she was shaking fiercely. She didn’t want to agree, she didn’t want to put her burden on her students, and she didn’t want to have to deal with this horrible man ever again. Finally, after several long minutes of silence, she nodded. “My team will fight yours during the finale of the Chuunin exams,” Rei agreed, “and if my team wins, you’ll never bother me again, and I can go on with my life as if you never existed.”

Raiju backed away from her, a smirk on his face, and repeated, “If your team wins,” and then he disappeared into a puff of smoke. Rei stood in one spot, shaking and trembling for several minutes, before she sank to the ground and pulled her knees up to her chest.

“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I don’t want to do this to you.” Part of her wished her students could hear and understand so she wouldn’t have to explain to them later, but she also didn’t want them to see her so helpless. “I don’t want to push my burden onto her.”

She cried, apologized, and begged for help over and over again, until the sun went down, but no one could hear her, and no one came for her.


	4. Act 1: Chapter 3 - An Introduction to the Poisonous Rose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kinomi Umeboshi has to escort her team from Sunagakure to Konohagakure for the Chuunin exams, along with a mysterious guest.

Kinomi Umeboshi had decided to escort her genin team consisting of Masago Sasaki, Natsui Hyuuzu, and Hisato Isagoji from Sunagakure to Konohagakure in a horse-drawn wagon. Normally, of course, she would have made them walk like everyone else, but an old friend of hers was without her usual guard. In the back of the wagon, next to the blond-haired woman dressed in the Sunagakure Jounin uniform, there sat a person wearing a cloak that concealed all of their physical features, while Kinomi’s three young genin, eager to participate in the Chuunin Exams, leaned over the sides of the wagon and watched the trees fly by around them. They had been asked at the beginning of the journey to pay their hooded guest no mind.

“I think this is the same path I’ve taken to Konoha before,” said Natsui. “The trees are always so green and lovely. I’m kind of sad we don’t have this back home, but I think I prefer the dry weather to the pretty scenery.” Natsui was a young girl with black hair, bright green eyes, and a beauty mark below the right side of her lip. She had a pretty face and good features, though it was evident by the way that she dressed and wore her hair that she had yet to realize it.

“When have you been to Konoha before?” asked Masago. He was a boy with short, messy blond hair and brown eyes.

“I’ve been a couple of times, actually,” Natsui answered. “I have to go to other villages sometimes because of my family.” She laid on her back to watch the trees and the sky fly by overhead.

“What’s Konoha like, exactly?” asked Hisato, a boy with dark skin, black hair that was cut even, and dark blue eyes that were accented by black eyeliner.

“It’s just like Suna, really,” Natsui replied, “Just … greener, and not as dry and hot.”

“You won’t really have that much time to explore the village,” interrupted Kinomi, whose lavender eyes were keeping a close watch over her young students. “Most of the time we’re there, we’ll have to focus our attention on the exams.”

Natsui turned her head to look at her teacher and make a response, but instead she got distracted by the mysterious, cloaked guest sitting next to Kinomi. The dark red cloak hid most of the stranger’s features, but under the hood, Natsui could make out the fine angles of a woman’s jawline, and full lips decorated with a deep red color. Kinomi had told Natsui and her teammates not to pay their guest any mind, but Natsui couldn’t help but to be curious. What was under the stranger’s hood, and why did they need to be escorted?

While Natsui was contemplating her questions about the stranger, the red-painted lips slowly curled into a warm, gentle smile. Then, to everyone’s surprise, the hooded stranger turned her head to Kinomi and a soft, sultry voice remarked, “Your students are rather charming, Kinomi.” The mysterious woman had been silent for the past two days, and her words caught both Kinomi and her students off guard. No one had expected her to say anything.

“Are you certain you’re comfortable speaking to them, Aiyoku?” Kinomi asked, her eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Why not?” Aiyoku laughed. “You know it’s hard for me to keep quiet, I wish you hadn’t insisted upon it.” The mysterious woman removed the hood from her head, and Natsui and her teammates couldn’t help but to stare in awe. Aiyoku was a strikingly beautiful woman with crimson red eyes and long, reddish-brown hair that seemed to frame her face perfectly. Natsui had never seen such a beautiful woman in her life, and she could feel her cheeks flushing red the longer she stared. Both Masago and Hisato seemed just as fixated on her as Natsui was. Masago’s jaw was slowly opening while Hisato glanced over his shoulder at her.

Aiyoku was silent for a few minutes while she watched the genin staring, and then she chuckled. “You must have thought I was a man under that baggy cloak.”

“What did you say your name was…?” asked Hisato, calmly.

Aiyoku chuckled again, amused by the fixation Kinomi’s students had on her. “Aiyoku,” she said, “Aiyoku Yoruno.”

Natsui did not want to make herself appear rude to the beautiful stranger by continuing to stare, so she turned her head to Kinomi to ask, “Is she going to be staying at my family’s estate with us during the exams?”

Kinomi had opened her mouth to reply, but Aiyoku gently placed a hand on Kinomi’s shoulder and replied, “No, unfortunately, I will not, for I have my own business to attend to. But, I have seen the Hyuuzu Clan’s Konohagakure estate before on my travels, and it is a magnificent marvel of architecture, indeed.” She took a brief pause, and then a necklace that Natsui was wearing caught her eye. “I’ve never seen a gemstone like that before,” she said, “Where did you get it?”

Natsui looked down and held the round, polished, red stone between her fingers. “Oh, this? My sister gave it to me a couple of years ago. She travels a lot and only comes home every once in a while, and one time when she came back she gave me this. I’m not sure what it is.” Natsui’s necklace was, indeed, very precious to her. Ever since it was gifted to her, she was seldom seen without it.

Before anyone could continue the conversation, their wagon driver interrupted the group to inform them that they had arrived at the gates to the village of Konohagakure.

Masago, Natsui, and Hisato jumped out of the wagon first, and Kinomi stepped down after them. Then, the Sunagakure Jounin turned to face the wagon again and held out her hand to help Aiyoku step down and out of the wagon. She proved that she was as graceful as she was beautiful when she gently took Kinomi’s hand and gracefully stepped down from the wagon.

“I apologize that our time together was so short and so silent,” said Aiyoku as she walked past Kinomi’s students, “But I’m afraid we have to part ways, now. I hope that, perhaps, we can meet again someday, and hopefully not under poor circumstances.” She turned to face Kinomi before adding, “I wish your students the best of luck, Kinomi.” Aiyoku then made a low, graceful bow before turning on her heel and disappearing into the crowded, busy streets of Konohagakure.

“Who … was she?” asked Natsui while her eyes scanned the crowds of Konoha to try to find a glimpse of Aiyoku. She saw nothing save for the backs and faces of strangers.

“I can’t tell you,” Kinomi answered, sternly. “You can know her name but her occupation is a bit of a secret unless you’re either thirteen or Chuunin rank and above. You’ll probably find out, eventually, but not from me.”

“That sounds awfully suspicious,” said Masago. “If Jounin are keeping secrets from us.”

“Just from children, Masago,” Kinomi corrected him as she was unloading the bags from the wagon and handing the driver his payment and tip. “And you’ll find out in due time it’s for a good reason.”

“Is it possible that she works for the Kageboushi?” asked Hisato. “I hear that the Kageboushi has eyes and ears everywhere, and secret agents in every social circle.”

“Don’t be a moron!” said Masago, putting his arm around Hisato’s shoulders. “Everyone knows the Kageboushi is just a weird conspiracy theory. He doesn’t exist!”

Hisato scowled at his teammate and pulled himself away from Masago’s arm. “That’s not true,” Hisato argued, “Supposedly the Isagoji clan has someone working for the Kageboushi to keep a connection between the two of us.”

Masago rolled his eyes. “You’re being ridiculous, of course big rich clans like yours want to make themselves look tough by insisting they have a connection to some legendary information dealer.”

“Enough of this nonsense,” Kinomi snapped, “Natsui, where is your family’s estate?”

Natsui was in a daze scanning the crowds for the lovely and graceful woman, but came back to her senses when Kinomi called her name. “Sorry, sensei, I almost forgot,” she apologized, “It’s this way.”

Natsui led her team down a path and away from the village’s main street and down a wooded path towards the grand, wooden, red and brown gates of the Hyuuzu clan’s white marble estate. Kinomi had intended to greet one of the clan’s leaders upon her arrival to remind them of who she was, but instead the team from Sunagakure was met by the sight of several of the clan’s leaders arguing in the estate’s court yard.

“I simply think that our genetic weaknesses could be treated like any other,” said a man in the guards’ uniform. “We shouldn’t have to breed out of our clan to continue existing and to continue breeding.”

“Do you even understand the severity of our situation?” asked a large, muscular man with a beard. “Do you not know that we’ve been told there’s no other way to get rid of our infertility problem?”

“We don’t know that for sure,” retorted the man in the guards’ uniform. “That’s not how we were told to deal with it, that’s how we decided to deal with it. We can treat it if we find out what causes it.”

“He has a point, you know,” said a woman with a rather deadpan voice that Kinomi recognized as Sabureko Hyuuzu, “We could find a way to cure the … infertility thing if we found what … genetic thing does or at the very least treat it so we couldn’t have to worry about losing our power as a clan. Most powerful clans stay in power because they don’t allow themselves to breed with other clans.”

“Neither of you have any idea what you’re talking about,” sighed the bearded man.

“I don’t think you do, either, Kazangan,” said Sabureko rather coldly.

There was a break in the circular argument long enough for Natsui to interrupt, “Sabureko-obasan?”

The argument ceased and the three adults turned to face the genin team.

“Oh,” Sabureko sighed, unimpressed, “You’re here for the Chuunin exam thing, I guess.”

“Yes,” said Kinomi, “We were promised we could stay on this estate during the exams because of Natsui’s family.”

“Then I’m not the person you should talk to, Umeboshi,” Sabureko replied. “The person you need to talk to is named Jiro, he’s in charge here, I’m only in charge in Sunagakure.” Sabureko then turned her head away as if to look off into nothing. Sabureko was Natsui’s aunt, but Natsui could never seem to shake the feeling from her gut that there was something about the way Sabureko spoke and carried herself that was cold.

‘Oh, look,” said Sabureko, dryly, “You’re in luck. The big idiot is on his way over here, right now.”

Sure enough, the tall, yellow-eyed man with a warm grin on his face was walking towards the group at the entrance to the estate to see what the commotion was about. “Asamoya, Kazangan, Sabureko,” Jiro started, “What is all of this about?” He took a quick look at the team from Suna before looking back towards the arguing members of his own clan.

“Nothing you need to worry yourself with, Jiro,” said Kazangan, “Just some…petty disagreements.”

“Petty disagreements, indeed,” Asamoya echoed, dryly.

Sabureko gestured to Kinomi Umeboshi and her students and said, “This is my brother’s brat and her team. They wanted a place to stay here during the Chuunin exams.”

Jiro turned to face Kinomi again and his eyes looked down to Natsui. “Kanetsu’s daughter, right?” Natsui nodded her head in response. “Excellent!” He looked up to face Kinomi, “We do have a place where you can stay, yes, Miss…erm…what is your name?”

“Umeboshi.” Kinomi answered. “I’m Kinomi Umeboshi, and these are Natsui’s teammates, Masago Sasaki and Hisato Isagoji.”

“I brought Miki and her teammates here for the exams as well,” said Kazangan, “Maybe you can greet her sometime while you’re here, and maybe she’ll introduce you to her teammates, my students. Though I should warn you that one of her teammates is rather crass.”

“Thank you for telling me, Kazangan-sama,” said Natsui with a bow, “I’ll have to see Miki-chan if she’s here.” Natsui turned to Jiro and asked, “Is Hyourin-san around?”

Jiro replied with a sigh, “Yeah, Hyourin’s…around. Somewhere. Her teacher exempted her team from the exams and she hasn’t been taking it well, as you can imagine. I think she’s been off spending some time with a friend of hers who is going to be taking the exam before the exam starts.”

“I…see.” Natsui sighed. Hyourin and Natsui’s mothers were both members of the Zentei tribe, and they were sisters. Natsui was Hyourin’s fist cousin and in Natsui’s previous visits to the Hyuuzu clan’s Konohagakure estate, she and Hyourin had become somewhat close, and Natsui had wanted to see her.

Kinomi bowed to Jiro. “Thank you for allowing us to stay here, Jiro-sama,” she said. “We really do appreciate your hospitality. We shouldn’t be staying any longer than is needed.”

Jiro smiled and waved his hand dismissively. “It’s no problem, really, you could always stay as long as you’d like! The suite that’s been prepared for you is the large building on the south side of the residential district.” Jiro pointed to what look liked like a multi-floored building with a hipped roof that looked like it could be an inn. “Just talk to the receptionist at the desk and tell her what you’re here for and she’ll point you towards your suite.”

Kinomi bowed again and ushered her students towards the building Jiro had pointed out.

“I’m surprised they’re letting us stay here, you know,” said Masago. “My dad said relationships between Konoha and Suna haven’t really been that good lately.”

“I wouldn’t know,” said Kinomi, “I’m not a diplomat and I’ve been out of the loop. Besides, the Hyuuzu clan is rather neutral when it comes to cross-village politics and tends to like to keep its members close to its chest.”

“Kinomi-sensei,” said Natsui, “If you can’t tell us what Aiyoku does, what can you tell us about her?”

Kinomi sighed, “Very well.” The Jounin took a pause before continuing, “Aiyoku is a pretty high-ranking Jounin in Suna, though it’s because she has some unique abilities that need to be put to use in special circumstances. She only takes her orders directly from the Kazekage or the Wind Daimyo, and she must always insist on having a Jounin guard her at all times, and she tends to request she be assigned to female guards.”

“How curious…” Natsui mused out loud. She wondered if she could ever be as beautiful as Aiyoku.

Behind them, Kinomi could hear Jiro and Sabureko talking amongst themselves. She heard Sabureko let out a disgusted groan before she said, “Some would say that you are too hospitable for your own good, Jiro.”

Jiro seemed to shrug it off, “It hasn’t killed me yet.”

“Yet,” Sabureko repeated.


	5. Act 1: Chapter 4 - An Introduction to the Figure in the Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mysterious force navigates in the darkness, but is their intention malicious or not?

Deep below the ground of no village in particular, somewhere in the shadows of a place long forgotten by time, there was a circular, dimly-lit office with walls made out of sandstone. Filing cabinets and bookshelves that were overflowing with books and papers lined the walls from the floor to the ceiling, and what visible part of the sandstone wall was left bare was decorated with hand-drawn charts and lists that were full of names and locations, and most of those names and locations were accompanied with numbers. In the center of the circular room was an old, rectangular, lone wooden desk, where a woman with fair skin, short red hair, and dark blue eyes sat bent over a mound of papers.

The woman’s eyes were focused on lists of names in front of her. She was reading them and matching them to other files that were laying across her desk. She began to circle names and make notes next to them, and also took various notes on the lists on a separate document. A door across the room from the desk opened, and a second woman wearing glasses stepped into the room. She had long, black hair and crimson red eyes. The woman with red hair paid the visitor no mind.

“Is the list of Genin to enter this year’s Chuunin exam to your liking, Hinomi-sama?” Asked the woman wearing glasses. Her speaking voice was rather dull and she seemed uninterested in the woman sitting in the desk.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s to my liking or not, really,” the woman with red hair, Hinomi, responded, “you should know that by now, Makimi. Though it seems to confirm the information that we were given about Orochimaru and Sunagakure attacking Konohagakure. I was more than a little bit concerned about the credibility of that information though I am still just a little uncertain.”

With a yawn, the woman with glasses asked, “Will you do something about it?”

Calmly, Hinomi said, “No, of course not, it’s none of my concern. No one important to me is in any immediate danger and neither are my contacts. In fact, it very well may serve as an opportunity for us.”

The woman wearing glasses lazily leaned against the door frame and asked, “Aren’t you at all concerned about your siblings or…anyone, really?” Her voice was still dull and monotone.

“Intervening in something like this would be a waste of resources,” said Hinomi as she sat up straight and reviewed the lists and the notes in front of her. “Orochimaru has placed many of his own men into the exam, it wound seem, and the Shukaku’s vessel is going to be there as well.” Hinomi stood up from her desk and pinned some of the notes she made on the side of one of the filing cabinets. “I don’t know what the Kazekage is planning, but I’m more than certain Orochimaru is here because he’s after the Uchiha boy.”

“Why do you think this is none of your business, exactly?” The black-haired woman retrieved a nail file from her pockets and began filing her names and cleaning beneath them.

“No one has done anything to compromise my network, Makimi,” Hinomi turned to face her secretary, “And I feel no love for anyone involved in Orochimaru’s ridiculous plots. Besides, if I were to intervene, it would make my existence known and it’d make me easier to find. I have every intention of remaining neutral.”

Makimi yawned, “It just seems kinda heartless to me that you know this is happening and you’re not going to do anything to stop it when you’re more than capable of doing so.”

“I’ve no cause to care.” Hinomi gestured to the list of people entered in the Chuunin Exams, “All of those people are faceless names to me. If Makimi Yuuhi, Seimaru Uzumaki, Miyabi Uzumaki, Shiya Hyuuga, or Shuuya Hyuuzu were on that list, I would have caused to care about an impending attack, but they aren’t on that list, and you are standing right in front of me, and you are in no danger. My brother is away on ANBU business and he is in no danger. My sister works in a tea shop and she is in no danger. None of those who matter to me are in danger, my network is in no danger of being compromised, and I have no reason to intervene.”

Makimi yawned again. “Whatever, I guess.”

Hinomi waved Makimi’s apathy aside and asked, “Is there any new information for me from any of our informants?”

Makimi thought for a second. “Yeah, I got a note from Shiya this morning,” she said after putting her nail file back into her pockets. “I left it at my desk, give me just a minute.” The black-haired woman turned and left the room.

Hinomi sighed and leaned her hips against her wooden desk. “Your blatant apathy and emotional detachment, accompanied with a mild curiosity, is precisely the reason you make the perfect assistant,” Hinomi muttered to herself, “I was too interested, and Himizu Uchiha was careless. I will not let his mistakes be repeated.”

The black-haired woman with glasses returned to the dark, circular office a few minutes after leaving, and carried a small piece of paper with hastily-written, but still legible, note on it. Makimi handed the note to Hinomi, who read the note over three times while her fingers ran along the creases in the paper. When she finally processed the information on the note, she quickly turned and threw it into the fire of a torch burning on the wall. “The woman known by reputation as the Poisonous Rose is in Konohagakure,” she said. “That means, given that Sabureko Hyuuzu arrived here a few days ago, both of the Kazekage’s personal assassins are in Konoha this very moment.” Makimi retrieved her nail file from her pockets once more and continued to file her red nails while nodding in Hinomi’s direction as a sign that she was, at least, listening. “That was the final piece of information I needed that Sunagakure is planning something.” Hinomi retreated to the chair behind her desk, and looked down at the papers scattered around it, “Though I’m interested to know if Sabureko is involved, or if the Kazekage has taken usual precaution not to let members of the Hyuuzu clan know of village conflicts like this.”

“So, Hinomi-san,” Makimi said with a yawn, “since the information you were given is credible, and I don’t have anything else to do today, could you give me my paycheck so I can go home?”

“Ah, yes,” Hinomi sighed. She pulled open a drawer of her desk and pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote a couple of quick words and numbers on it, and she handed the paper to Makimi when she was finished writing on it. “Take that to Hideki Nohara, as usual.”

Makimi took a good look at the piece of paper she was handed and said, “You know, for a weird old lady that sits alone at a desk and talks to herself all the time, you sure do dish out a lot of cash.”

Hinomi sat up straight at her desk chair. “I built my network on knowledge,” she said, “and knowledge is power. With power comes money and resources that I intend to use as this network was intended to be used.”

“Whatever,” Makimi sighed, “Can I leave, now?” Hinomi nodded, and Makimi turned and left. Hinomi was left alone in her dark office. She didn’t mind being alone much, really, but she very well couldn’t just talk to herself. It was a shame, too, because after she sat down and returned to work on her files, she discovered a little tidbit that every member of the Konohagakure Interrogation Unit that was tracking her network’s movements and was attempting to to pinpoint her identity and location was being pulled from their usual duties to oversee the Chuunin exams.

Hinomi knew immediately that this was a window of opportunity for her to expand her network of contacts and agents, to expand her influence, and gain large quantities of new information without drawing attention to herself. It was a chance to gain new knowledge and, of course, to Hinomi, knowledge was power.

She, however, had to do so with secrecy, subterfuge, and a gentle hand. She, in no way, could let her presence be known to anyone outside of her network. After all, everyone was still under the assumption that the Kageboushi was a man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter may seem a little bit weird to anyone who has never heard me explain the "Kageboushi" Organization, so I'll explain everything from this chapter in a less weird and cryptic way, because I've revealed and implied everything I've wanted to imply in this chapter and I have no intention of elaborating on it further.
> 
> The Common Knowledge: The "Kageboushi" refers to the anonymous figurehead of a network of spies that's dedicated to the gathering, buying, and selling of information regarding various villages, clans, and individuals in the world. The Kageboushi's influence and power and the size of their network has grown substantially over the past four years. Many theories about who the Kageboushi's identity exist and many villages are (mostly unsuccessfully) attempting to track down the Kageboushi and prevent them from handing out village secrets.
> 
> The Not-Common Knowledge: The "Kageboushi" is a position that has been handed down for generations since Tobirama Senju was Hokage. The current Kageboushi, Hinomi Uzumaki, has every intention of running the network with a strict sense of neutrality without favoring any one group over another. The previous Kageboushi before Hinomi was a man by the name of Himizu Uchiha. Himizu was rather careless and had every intention of using his position as a source of power for the Uchiha clan, and HInomi was his assistant. Hinomi eventually used Himizu's carelessness against him and took his position as Kageboushi, and has carefully selected each and every one of her agents and contacts so that she won't repeat Himizu's carelessness.


	6. Act 1: Chapter 5 - Beginning Formation

“Nii-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!” Rang out a shrill voice, “Wake up! Breakfast is ready! Mom will worry if you don’t come and eat soon!” 

Tatsu wasn’t asleep, but he wanted to be. His head was floating back on the top of the water in the pond behind his house, and his long black hair was spread out around him. The water surrounded his body and held him like a blanket. It was cold, but it was also calming, and he could feel his muscles relaxing. He could easily forget his obnoxious teammates, and he refused to move from that spot until he was ready to.

The screen on the back deck of the house was pulled back by a teenage girl with pale skin, black hair pulled back into a messy bun, and purple eyes. She stood in the open door with her hands on her hips. “Oi, lazy!” She called, “You didn’t fall asleep out here again, did you? Mom’s gonna be mad and you’re going to be late for whatever you have to do today!”

“I’m not going to be late, Momoko!” Tatsu shouted in reply. His eyes were closed. His teammates got on his nerves, sure, but his sister somehow managed to live on his last nerve. 

“How can someone as lazy as you manage to not be late?” Momoko stepped down from the back deck of the house and sat on the edge of the pond. She dipped her feet into the cold water.

“You’re the lazy one,” mumbled Tatsu, “not me.” The boy stood up from the water and stepped out of the pond, and then made a few quick hand seals to dry off his hair and his body. “But I suppose I should get something to eat, it might end up being a long day.”

Momoko pouted, “Of course you stand up as soon as I sit down.”

“You’re really just that unpleasant of a person to be around,” said Tatsu as he pulled his jacket on.

“You’re wrong about that,” said Momoko with a song-like tone to her voice, “My boyfriend said he wants to spend all of his time around me. I think he’d know better than you do.”

“We don’t have enough money for you to bribe someone like that.”

Momoko stood up from the water and reached over to pull on her younger brother’s hair, “You’re so mean, Tatsu! If you keep saying such mean things, you’ll never get a cute girlfriend!”

Tatsu reached behind his head to try and push his sister away and responded, “Well, maybe I don’t want a cute girlfriend!”

Momoko grabbed Tatsu’s arm with her free hand, “You won’t get a cute boyfriend, either, if you keep making such rude comments, you know!” Tatsu responded with a grunt, “Maybe I don’t want a cute boyfriend, either,” and dropped his hand.

Momoko pulled Tatsu’s hair back and began to twist it into a bun like hers and said, “Now sit still for a minute so I can pull your hair back.”

“I don’t need you to pull my hair back, Momoko,” Tatsu groaned.

“But it’s so long, it’s going to get in the way! If you don’t want to pull it back, you should cut it.”

“No,” Tatsu replied immediately, “I don’t want to cut it, either.”

“Then pull your hair back, you lazy boy.” When Momoko was finished, Tatsu’s hair was pulled back into the same style that his sister’s hair was. “Now go get some breakfast before mother worries about you.”

Tatsu did as he was told, and he left the house immediately after he ate breakfast. It was the morning of the first part of the Chuunin exams, and it was still early. He had to spend the entire day with his teammates in the village. Rei was needed that day, and probably the next few consecutive days, to observe parts of the Chuunin exam. In her absence, she gave Tatsu, Hyourin, and Nakamora instructions to spend time together in the village while she couldn’t be there, rather than spend their time together training their physical abilities. Tatsu couldn’t think of any worse way of wasting his time, aside from spending the day with his older sister. He wasn’t looking forward to the days Rei was going to be needed as an exam prompter, and he couldn’t imagine that Hyourin and Nakamora were, either. 

He stood outside of a sandwich shop Rei asked them to meet at. He was the first one there, as usual. Nakamora and Hyourin always took their precious time to get to their meeting points, which was why he told Momoko that he was positive he wasn’t going to be late. He could have spent more time relaxing in the pond and he still would have shown up to the meeting point before Hyourin and Nakamora did.

After just a few minutes passed, Tatsu heard Hyourin’s voice yell from down the street, “Don’t do anything stupid and get yourself hurt!”

Tatsu flinched and turned in the direction he heard his teammate’s voice coming from. He thought she was calling to him at first, but she was too far down the street, she stood in front of a tea shop, and she was talking to someone Tatsu didn’t recognize at first. It took him a minute to identify who Hyourin was talking to, but Tatsu eventually realized it was Sasuke Uchiha, who Hyourin had previously claimed to be close friends with. Tatsu was rather skeptical to Hyourin’s claim given that many of the girls in his academy class were interested in the Uchiha boy.

“I’m not, Hyourin,” Sasuke replied, “You shouldn’t waste your energy worrying about me.”

“I can’t help it,” said Hyourin,” I worry about you since you came back from that one mission covered in scars. And who else is going to help me prepare for the exam when it’s time for me to take it?”

“Are you sure that’s the reason?” Sasuke asked, “I was so sure it was because you didn’t want to get blood drawn in case I lost any.”

“That too,” Hyourin agreed, “I don’t like needles being poked into my skin, either. Why do I have to be the one to give you blood?”

“Because we have the same blood type and chakra nature.” 

“Okay, I can see the blood type thing, but what does the chakra nature have to do with anything?”

Sasuke shrugged. “It has something to do with it.” He looked at Hyourin the eyes and said, “You don’t have to worry about me.”

When he turned to walk off, Hyourin told him, “I’ll believe that when you walk out of the exam unharmed. I was told that it’s dangerous.”

Tatsu watched with disinterest as the two exchanged their goodbyes before Hyourin turned to walk down the street to join him.

“What was all of that about?” Tatsu asked Hyourin when she approached. He didn’t really care, but he thought he’d ask anyway. 

“What?” Hyourin seemed surprised. “You heard that?”

“Your voice was so loud, it was hard not to,” said Tatsu. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire village heard that.”

“If you really must know,” she said, “It was none of your business.” 

“That doesn’t really tell me anything, you know.”

“It wasn’t supposed to.”

Tatsu paused before saying, “It looks like you really are friends with that weird guy, then, huh.”

Hyourin crossed her arms. “I’ve been friends with him since we were kids, but you didn’t seem to believe me the first time I told you that.”

“I don’t know, it’s hard to tell when half of the girls in our class wanted to date him.”

Before Hyourin could say anything in reply, Nakamora came running up to Tatsu and Hyourin. “I”m sorry I’m late, again!!” He shouted as he bowed to his teammates. 

“Don’t worry about it,” said Tatsu, “Hyourin and I haven’t been here that long.”

“I don’t see the point of the entire day together like we’re actually friends,” said Hyourin, “It’s not like it would prepare us for the Chuunin exam next year or anything.”

“I think it’s a nice change of pace!” Nakamora said.

"Maybe,” said Tatsu,” It’s because Rei-sensei thinks we can’t get along because of personality differences, and we aren’t really lacking in physical prowess and our abilities aren’t really sub-par, we’re just incapable of getting along.”

“No,” answered Hyourin immediately, “That just sounds dumb.”

“Well, guys,” said Nakamora quickly before Tatsu and Hyourin could continue, “I couldn’t really think of anything we could do together, but I have some grocery shopping I have to get done and I was wondering if you guys would help me?”

“Sure,” said Tatsu, “I don’t have a problem with that.” He glanced at Hyourin. He expected her to refuse Nakamora’s request immediately.

To Tatsu’s surprise, Hyourin sighed and said, “Sure. It’s not like we really have anything better to do today.”

Nakamora’s eyes lit up when both of his teammates agreed to help him, even with such a small task. “Thank you!” he exclaimed immediately as he threw his arms around Tatsu and Hyourin’s shoulders. Tatsu didn’t say anything, but Hyourin let out a grunt.

“Why can’t you do this yourself, exactly?” Tatsu asked.

“I need help carrying the heavy bags,” said Nakamora quickly.

“Why don’t you parents do the grocery shopping?” Hyourin asked, “And why aren’t they going to help you?”

Nakamora hesitated. Tatsu watched him bite his lip for a few seconds before he answered, “Well, they’re busy most of the time and I do most of the cooking.” 

“I see,” said Hyourin. She glanced at Tatsu out of the corner of her eye, but he just raised his eyebrows in response. 

“We shouldn’t waste any more time!” Nakamora said with great enthusiasm, “I have to get rice, eggs, vegetables, chicken, and sweets.” He walked towards a street lined with produce stores.

“Sweets?” Hyourin groaned, “that would explain a lot, but no thanks.”

“Maybe we should pick up the vegetables first,” thought Nakamora out loud.

“No, idiot,” snapped Tatsu, “You should get the rice first. The vegetables could go bad or get bruised if we get them first.”

Nakamora didn’t really know how to respond, and after a moment’s hesitation he led his teammates into a small store selling rather large (and expensive) bags of rice. Tatsu looked at the price for the large rice bags, and immediately asked, “Can you afford this?”

“Yeah,” said Nakamora, “It’s not really that much.”

Tatsu could feel the side of his eye twitch. “Just how much money does your family have?”

“I’m not sure, actually,” said Nakamora. He stared to stare into space, as if he was contemplating exactly how much money his family actually had.

“He’s right, you know,” Hyourin agreed, “This really isn’t that bad for a bag of rice this size.”

“You’re both rich freaks!” Tatsu muttered under his breath.

“Let’s just hurry up and get out of here,” said Hyourin, but Nakamora was completely rooted to the spot, and he was still staring straight ahead. 

After a few seconds of silence, Tatsu asked, “Are you alright, Nakamora? You … don’t really have to tell us exactly how much money your family has.”

Nakamora’s hand was shaking as he slowly raised his arm to point at a girl who was looking at the bags of rice. Her back was turned to them, so all Tatsu and Hyourin could see of her was a head of long, blue hair. 

“Do you know her?” Hyourin asked. Nakamora shook his head.

Tatsu sighed, “Then do you think she’s pretty, or … something?” Nakamora slowly nodded. His face was flushed red. 

“Then go talk to her, you idiot!” Hyourin said. She pushed Nakamora forward, and he almost tripped over a bag of rice when he walked towards the girl with the blue hair. “And stop making me look like a weirdo,” she muttered under her breath. She grabbed Tatsu by the collar of his jacket and pulled him over to look at a display of various bags of noodles to appear as though they weren’t spying on their teammate. 

“You didn’t have to be so forward with him, you know,” said Tatsu.

Hyourin gestured towards her orange-haired teammate and said, “He literally wasn’t moving.”

Tatsu turned his eyes towards the noodle display and mumbled, “How do they get away with charging this much for udon?” 

“Shut up!” Hyourin whispered. 

Nakamora slowly walked up to the pale blue-haired girl, but the only sounds that came out of his mouth were, “Um…” and “Erm…”

The blue-haired girl turned from looking at the bags of rice to look at Nakamora with creepy, eerily narrow, green eyes and said, “I’m sorry, am I in your way?”

“Uh…” Nakamora was frozen for a few minutes before he said, “Just a little bit.”

“I’m sorry!” The blue-haired girl bowed to Nakamora and stepped aside. When she stepped aside, Tatsu noticed that she had Konoha’s forehead protector sewn into her red skirt. He nudged Hyourin’s shoulder to point it out to her, and she nodded.

“It’s fine!” Nakamora said as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s just, I, uh, I come here a lot, and I’ve never, erm, seen you here before. I know that sounds weird, I’m sorry.”

“Well, you’re right,” she said, “This is actually my first time in here. I don’t usually buy this much rice at once, but I wanted to try and make some bento for my teammates.” 

“You picked the rice place to buy rice, then!” Nakamora said, proudly, “I buy my rice here and I make bento for my teammates all the time!”

Meanwhile, Hyourin whispered to Tatsu, “She looks like she’s about our age, shouldn’t she be taking the exam about now?”

Tatsu replied, “I was thinking the same thing, why else would she be taking her sweet time buying rice?”

“I don’t recognize her from our class, either,” Hyourin added.

“I don’t, either,” agreed Tatsu.

“That’s sweet of you,” said the blue-haired girl. “Your teammates must appreciate you a lot if you do things like that for them.” There was a pause. Nakamora didn’t really know how to respond, because his teammates always blamed everything that went wrong on him. Tatsu and Hyourin glanced at each other awkwardly. The blue-haired girl picked up on the silence and quickly asked, “So, what’s your name? Mine is Daiyu. Daiyu Kageyue.” 

"I’m Nakamora Haruka!” He replied quickly, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Daiyu!” 

“Maybe we have just been a little too harsh on him,” whispered Tatsu.

“Hush!” replied Hyourin.

Daiyu smiled. “You too, Nakamora-kun.” There was another pause before she continued, “Well, I really must be going.” She picked up a bag of rice. “Maybe we can see each other again sometime.”

“Really?” Nakamora asked excitedly, “I’d like that a lot!”

Daiyu bowed to him before hurrying off to pay for her rice. Nakamora stood rooted to the spot. 

Hyourin let out a groan as she rolled her eyes. “Come on, idiot,” she said when she walked over to where Nakamora was standing. “Let’s get going so we can get your shopping done.” She picked up a big bag of rice and slung it over her shoulder. 

Nakamora quickly fell out of his daze. “Oh,” he sighed, “Okay.”

Tatsu sighed as well. It looked like it was going to be a very long day.


	7. Act 1: Chapter 6 - Thorns

Gindei Ikeda was exhausted when he sat down at his favorite bar. He’d spent the entire day keeping watch over the Chuunin exams, and he was more than ready for a few good cups of sake. Maybe he’d even manage to win the heart of a beautiful woman, though with his track record he doubted it. It was enough to be able to relax until his next shift, and he didn’t have to hear his partner nag him about his poor life choices for at least five minutes. Meiken was a good friend of his and a great partner, but she was rather aggressive and had standards that Gindei sometimes had difficulties upholding. 

He had two cups of sake when he heard the door to the bar slide open. He turned around and saw the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen walk into the bar. She had the most flawless skin he’d ever seen that seemed to shine in the lighting of the bar, and long, brown hair that fell to her waist and swayed with her rolling hips. Gindei was absolutely captivated with the stranger’s beauty, and he couldn’t keep his eyes off of her. He knew it was rude to stare, but there was something so hypnotizing about her crimson red eyes and the way her body moved as she walked, and he couldn’t help but to stare.

Surely, he thought, a woman as beautiful as her would never sit next to him. He kept staring, and that just made him look weird. As she strutted closer to him, he was more and more certain she would never sit next to someone gawking wide-eyed at her like he was, and yet…

Her hips brushed lightly against his leg when she sat down next to him at the bar. The small area where she touched him flushed with heat, and she glanced over her shoulder at him to give him a subtle wink before turning to order some sake for herself. Her lips were painted red and moved gracefully as she spoke with the gentle, smooth voice that had a sound to it like a perfectly tuned instrument. Gindei couldn’t just stare at such a magnificent woman forever. He had to say something to. Surely she must already think ill of this silver-haired stranger who can’t keep his eyes off of her. 

To Gindei’s surprise, it was she who spoke first. She turned her head slightly in his direction and asked, “Do you come to this place very often?”

“What?” Gindei gasped in surprise. He hardly expected this gorgeous, crimson-eyed stranger to say anything to him. He quickly regained his composure and responded with, “Y-Yeah, this is my favorite bar in the village. I come here all the time.” He paused briefly, “Do you come here very often?” He thought his additional question was pointless, and he kind of wanted to slap himself. 

“No,” said the woman, “this is my first time here. I just thought this bar looked … quaint, and interesting.” She took a sip of sake. Gindei watched her lips gently caress the sides of the sake cup, and wondered what her lips felt like.

Gindei chuckled, “I’m not entirely sure just how ‘quaint’ or ‘interesting’ a bar can be.” There was a short pause as they both sipped from their sake cups. “So,” said Gindei, “Do you have a name?”

The woman laughed, “of course I have a name, but I think you should tell me yours, first.”

“Right,” he said, “sorry. I forgot. My name is Gindei Ikeda. It’s nice to meet you.”

The woman laughed again. “How charming,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you, Gindei. My name is Aya.”

“Aya…” Gindei repeated her name twice. It rolled off of his tongue and seemed to tickle his vocal cords as it vibrated in his throat. Maybe the latter part was the alcohol. “It’s a gorgeous name, it suits you perfectly. It suits your appearance perfectly, I mean.” 

“As Gindei is befitting to a man with silver hair.”

Gindei chuckled. He could feel his cheeks flushing red, and he decided it was definitely because of the alcohol. He really didn’t want to get drunk, because he didn’t want to ruin things with such a beautiful woman by making a fool of himself in front of her. He pushed his cup of sake away so he wouldn’t be tempted to keep sipping from it. 

“So, ah,” said Gindei, “did you come here with someone? Are you waiting for anyone?”

“No,” said Aya, “I’m here all by myself. I was just looking for some company. I work in a flower shop. I don’t really get to talk to anyone, so I get bored easily and no one interesting ever comes to visit me. I don’t have very many friends, either.”

Now that she mentioned it, Gindei noticed Aya smelled very strongly of roses. The scent was almost unnatural, but he supposed that if she spent all day working in a flower shop, she would probably smell a lot like flowers. 

“Is that so?” Gindei thought out loud, “Are you really that lonely?” He paused before adding, “But am I really that interesting?”

Aya reached over to Gindei and gently ran the back of her hand along the exposed skin of his shoulder. Her skin was soft to the touch and smooth like porcelain, and he could feel his body temperature rising at the slightest touch. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and he could begin to feel an adrenaline rush.

“I can tell from that tattoo on your shoulder that you work for Konoha’s ANBU,” said Aya, “I don’t see how that kind of work isn’t interesting.”

“I don’t really know about that,” said Gindei, “I mostly just work as a guard.”

“That’s still more exciting than working in a flower shop,” said Aya.

“I suppose I would rather be working as security rather than working as a florist,” he thought out loud. He realized what he must have sounded like, and quickly added, “No offense to you, of course.” 

“None taken,” she said. “Since you asked me … are you here for anyone? Do you have any friends here, or do you have some that have gone to the bathroom? Are you waiting on any friends? I thought for sure that someone as handsome as you must be awaiting the arrival of a beautiful woman.”

Gindei laughed nervously, “No, there’s no one. I came here alone, and I didn’t plan on meeting anyone here. I also don’t have any beautiful women in my life. Or, at the very least, none as beautiful as you.”

Aya looked over her shoulder at Gindei as she took a sip of sake. Her eyes were half-lidded, and her lips curled into a smirk as Gindei told her that he was alone and single. When she put her cup down, she slyly said, “Then maybe neither of us has to leave here alone.”

Gindei wasn’t entirely sure how the events of what would generally be considered a normal and particularly mundane day led up to him taking a gorgeous woman home to his apartment that night, but he was in no position to complain. He stopped questioning his luck when he unzipped the short, red dress that hugged the curves of Aya’s body perfectly, and he was able to slide his hands down the soft skin of her hips and thighs. He felt the heat of passion fuel him when her lips met his. Everything about her body was perfect to him as he held it against his. Her skin was soft to the touch, and he could have kept his hands on her forever.

When their passion had subsided, Aya laid next to Gindei on his bed. He was exhausted, and he was content to lay on his stomach while Aya ran her slender fingers through his hair.

“You have some impressive scars,” Aya said, “for someone that just does guard work, you seem to have a lot of experience fighting.” 

Gindei yawned, “It’s not that impressive, really. Just … normal shinobi stuff, really.”

“What sorts of things do you guard?” Aya asked him.

Gindei shrugged as best he could in his position. “It depends, really. Sometimes I stand outside hospital rooms for important people, sometimes I guard nobles. Recently I’ve been stationed as a guard for the Chuunin exams. It’s pretty easy, really, but that kind of makes it boring.”

“But that actually sounds interesting,” she said, “Do you work in shifts?”

“Yep.” Gindei yawned again, “We have four six-hour shifts in a day.”

“Do you have to work all of them?”

“No, just one a day. My shift is from noon to five.”

Gindei couldn’t remember any of the conversation after that. He slowly fell into a heavy sleep, and anything else Aya asked him faded into nothing.

When he awoke, Aya was gone from his bed. It was still night, and a half-moon was shining through his window. Gindei stood up and pulled his pants back on, and then let out a yawn and stretched his arms up behind his head. He thought maybe he could get something to eat before heading back to bed.

When his vision adjusted to the darkness, however, he noticed that Aya was standing in the corner of the room. Her dress was back on, and she was quickly writing something on a sheet of paper. He opened his mouth to ask her what she was doing, but he stopped himself. Something was off. Something had been off the entire night. He started to wonder, how could a florist be able to identify an ANBU tattoo? Why was she so quick to go home with him? Why would she ask him about guard shifts? 

And why was she writing something down on a scroll as quickly as she could? Why would a florist care about any of that?

Gindei kept a tantō knife on the side table next to his bed. He reached for it without taking his eyes off of Aya. She noticed Gindei’s movements out of the corner of her eye and quickly rolled up the sheet of paper and slid it into the sash on her dress. She slowly turned to face him and said, “I’m sorry I’ve deceived you, Gindei, but I should probably tell you that my name isn’t Aya.”

“Then what is your name?” Gindei asked, clenching the hilt of the knife tightly in his hand as he watched her carefully. 

“My name is Aiyoku,” she said. 

Aiyoku started to move towards the window to escape, but Gindei was faster. He lunged towards her and pinned her against the wall by the throat using his arm. She didn’t struggle against him, but just stared directly into his eyes. “Who are you,” he snarled, “And what do you want from me? Who are you working for?”

“I just told you who I am,” she said with a smirk, “The rest is none of your concern. I did enjoy our time together, though. That was no deception.”

Gindei pulled his arm away to so he could pull his hand holding the knife across to slit her throat, but she quickly ducked out of the way. Before he could follow his movements, she grabbed his arm from behind him and slid the knife out of his hand, and then quickly stabbed him in the thigh. Gindei barely had time to turn around to watch her jump out of the window.

He quickly pulled the knife from his thigh and ran to the window to pursue her, but she was nowhere in sight. He fell onto his bed with a sigh and retrieved a first aid kid from his bedside table to tend to the knife wound. When he was finished bandaging the wound and made sure the bleeding had stopped, he fell back onto his bed and sighed. He said to himself, “Meiken is going to kill me tomorrow,” before passing out.

Gindei awoke the next morning to aggressive knocking on his apartment door and an angry voice accompanying it. “Oi, Gindei!” The voice called, “Wake up! You can’t sleep all day, you know! We’ll be late to our shift if you sleep any longer!” Gindei slowly got up from his bed and limped towards the door. His thigh was throbbing with pain, but at least it wasn’t bleeding anymore. He pulled the door open to see his partner, Meiken Inuzuka, standing in his doorway in full armor with her hands on her hips.

“Gindei!” She shouted, “What the hell happened to you? Did you get into a bar fight again?”

“Not…exactly a bar fight,” Gindei yawned.

Meiken groaned, put her arm around Gindei’s shoulders, and practically carried him back to his bed. A large, brown and black dog followed Meiken at her heels. She tended to the wound on Gindei’s thigh before looking up at him and asking, “What happened, exactly? Were you screwing around again?”

“There was a woman,” Gindei admitted. 

Meiken groaned and rolled her eyes. “Of course there was. What? Who did you offend this time? Did you try to convince a poor woman to sleep with you and she turned out to be, I don’t know, some kind of assassin or something and she didn’t take kindly to you being a jackass and she just decided to stab you?”

“No,” said Gindei, “for once, I’ll have you know, she wanted to sleep with me.”

Meiken raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure? Were you drunk? Was this a hallucination?”

“I wasn’t even close to being drunk!” Gindei lied. “That’s not the point, Meiken. I slept with her, and then she asked me questions about the guard shifts.”

“And did you tell her?” 

There was silence. Meiken raised her eyebrows. Gindei hung his head and sheepishly answered, “Yes. Then she wrote them down. I tried to stop her, but she stole my knife and stabbed me so she could get away.”

“Did she get away?”

“Yeah. I don’t know where she is.”

Meiken groaned, stood up, and kicked Gindei in the shin. “You idiot! You deserved to get stabbed for being that stupid!” She shouted. Gindei winced and rubbed his leg where Meiken kicked it. “Can you think with your head instead of your dick for once? We’ll have to report this, you know! No one is going to be happy that you just told some strange woman about the guard shifts!”

“What about my leg?” Gindei asked.

Meiken sighed. “You’re a pain in the ass, Gindei. I’ll get Mizore over here to fix your leg, and then we’ll have to report this. Also, I want you to know that if anything like this ever happens again, I’m going to be the one stabbing you.”


	8. Act 1: Chapter 7 - Justified Concern

Hyourin was never a very patient person. 

The first parts of the exam had gone on for a few days now, and Hyourin had heard nothing of the person she regarded as her best friend. She didn’t want to be beside herself with worry, but she couldn’t help herself. One part of her wanted Sasuke to be perfectly fine and unharmed, but the other part of her wanted him to walk out with something that warranted her saying, “I told you so.” It was a horrible thought, and she knew very well that it was a horrible thought, but she really liked saying, “I told you so,” and she hoped that maybe Sasuke would learn to be more careful and cause Hyourin less worry in the future.

…And possibly, something would happen to him that would make him reconsider his plans for revenge against his older brother, but that was something else entirely.

Hyourin laid face-down on her bed, with her bare feet laying on her pillows at the head of the bed. She was trying not to go over every single horrible scenario that her friend could possibly be thrown into, but it turned out that she had a very vivid imagination. She kicked the pillows a couple of times in frustration before she attempted to roll over onto her back, but instead ended up rolling onto the floor. She stared up at the ceiling and thought that she should probably stand up and get back onto her bed, but she decided she didn’t feel like getting up.

Hyourin was on the floor for several minutes before the door opened and her oldest brother, Irihi Hyuuzu, walked into her room. “Hey, horse-face,” he said, “Mom said dinner’s ready.” He paused for a minute. “What the hell are you doing laying on the floor like that?” Irihi was almost as tall as his father, and he had straight, black hair that he kept well and bright, green eyes.

Hyourin’s response was a groan.

Irihi shrugged. “Alright, then,” he said, “I’ll just go eat all of your curry.”

“Wait!” Hyourin shouted. She jumped to her feet and pushed her brother out of her way to run out the door and down the stairs to the kitchen. She refused to miss curry. 

“Oh, there you are, Hyourin!” Hyourin’s mother was putting curry into bowls on the table. She could smell all the spices in the dish the minute she stepped into the kitchen. “I was worried you’d fallen asleep.” Hyourin’s mother was Asa Hyuuzu, though she was originally from a group of nomads who called themselves the Zentei tribe. She had long, curly blonde hair and purple eyes. Asa dressed in the style of her tribe, but she openly wore the necklace that symbolized that she was married to someone of the Hyuuzu clan.

“She might as well have been,” said Irihi when he walked into the kitchen behind Hyourin. “She was just laying on her bedroom floor and staring at the ceiling.”

“At least dad didn’t walk on me making out with my girlfriend or anything,” said Hyourin. She turned to Irihi with a mischievous grin before she sat down at the table. 

She watched as Irihi’s face turned red and he shouted, “That was one time!” in his defense. He sat down across from his younger sister.

Hyourin’s other brother, Eiki, walked into the kitchen behind his siblings and asked, “Are they already fighting again?” Eiki looked almost exactly like Hyourin, except his hair was parted to the side and kept pulled back. 

“It would seem so,” sighed Asa, “but at least they haven’t started throwing things at each other yet.”

Eiki laughed, paused for a second, and then turned to his sister and asked, “Is something bothering you, Hyourin?”

Hyourin was already shoveling curry into her mouth. “No,” she lied, “Why do you ask?” Eiki was Hyourin’s twin brother. Truthfully, he was her opposite in almost every way. She fought with him sometimes, but she could never hide anything from him. They could always manage to sense what the other was feeling. It was kind of weird, but mostly annoying.

“Just a feeling,” he said. He sat down next to his twin sister.

“Are the Chuunin exams still going on?” Asa asked. She put a plate of steamed pork buns on the table before sitting down with her children.

Hyourin grabbed one of the pork buns and immediately shoved it into her mouth. “Yeah,” she answered with her mouth full, “what about it?”

“Well,” said Asa, “Your father and I were looking through our family pictures the other day, and he noticed that we don’t have any pictures of you and Sasuke together.”

“Why does that matter?” Hyourin asked.

“Well, you two are such close friends,” said Asa, “And Sasuke comes over sometimes and he doesn’t really have anyone else anymore. I thought we could take a nice picture of the two of you and make a few copies, for all of us.”

“That sounds like it’d be tedious and annoying,” Hyourin said after swallowing a mouthful of food, “But okay.”

“Invite him over when he has some free time!” Asa insisted, “I’ll make those rice balls he likes.”

“Hey,” Irihi interrupted, “You’re eating more than usual, horse-face.” 

“So what?” Hyourin asked with a shrug and a pork bun in her mouth, “I’m just really hungry.”

“Just be sure to save some for Father when he comes home,” said Eiki.

“That won’t be a problem,” said Asa, “I made plenty of food for all of us!”

“Be careful, Mom,” said Irihi, “She might eat all of that, anyway.”

“Says the person that eats all of the ice cream in the middle of the night,” said Hyourin.

“That was one time!” Irihi argued.

“That reminds me,” said Asa, “Irihi, we should get a picture of you and Momoko together sometime, too.”

“Why?” Irihi’s faced flushed red, “It’s not like I’ve agreed to marry her or anything! Wouldn’t it be pointless to get a picture of us together if we might not even stay together?”

Hyourin snickered, “Oh, it’s like that, huh? Do you want to marry Momoko-chan, Irihi?”

"It’s not!” Irihi shouted.

“Oh, hush,” said Asa, “she’s been a good girlfriend to you, it’s obvious you care about her a lot, and she’s a nice girl. A picture of the two of you together would be nice to have.”

“Plus,” Eiki added, “It’s not as though any other woman would have him.”

“That was low, Eiki,” said Irihi. “That was low.”

“It was true,” said Hyourin.

Before anyone could add anything to the light-hearted arguments, they heard the front door open.

“I’m home!” Jiro called from the front door.

“We’re in the kitchen, love!” Asa called back to him.

When Jiro walked through the kitchen door, he said, “What a magnificent honor it is to see all three of my lazy children all at the table together, instead of up in their rooms sleeping for once.”

“Irihi’s the one that ditches dinner all the time just to eat his girlfriend’s face!” Hyourin said immediately. 

“Says the lazy horse-face who skips dinner just to nap and then hogs all of the leftovers to herself!” Irihi retorted. 

Jiro was laughing when he sat down at the table. “It’s so much more lively when you’re both here!” He said. 

“Did anything particularly interesting happen today, father?” Eiki asked.

“Not really,” Jiro admitted. “I don’t have much to do during the exams except run background checks while I’ve got all the other protectors here. Other perspectives and knowledge of various clans that I don’t have, and such.”

“Do you know when the exam is going to be over?” Hyourin asked.

“Well,” said Jiro, “Technically the finals aren’t for another month, but the preliminary rounds should be over by tomorrow evening.”

“I see…” Hyourin mumbled. 

“Jiro,” said Asa, “I told Irihi and Hyourin about our picture ideas!”

“You did?” Asked Jiro, with a bit of surprise in his voice. “Well, what do you guys think? I think it’d be great to get pictures of you with the people you’re spending most of your time with!”

“It sounds annoying,” said Hyourin, “But I’ll see if I can talk Sasuke into it.”

“I really understand why you’d actually want to get a picture of Momoko and I together…” Irihi mumbled.

“I think you both should consider yourselves lucky to have people at your side that you can call close like that,” said Eiki.

“You should get out more, Eiki,” “You’re nice enough to make friends easily and you’re attractive enough that all the girls in the village would be more than willing to throw themselves at you.”

Irihi raised an eyebrow at his sister. “How do you know that he’s attractive? You’re not supposed to think your own twin brother is attractive.”

Hyourin smirked. “He’s attractive because he looks exactly like me.”

Eiki waved his hand in a dismissive way and said, “No, I don’t have time to get out. I’m learning how to organize records here so I can work as a Lore Keeper when I’m old enough. It’s a lot of work and I don’t get enough free time. Besides, I’m learning with other members of the clan that intend to work the same job, so I have company.” There was a smile on his face.

After dinner was over, everyone retreated to their own rooms except for Eiki. Eiki followed Hyourin to her room, and leaned against the screen to her balcony. Hyourin didn’t mind him being in her room. She didn’t mind him watching her change out of her clothes and into something comfortable to sleep in, either.

“You know, sister,” said Eiki, “it’s okay to admit that you’re worried about your friend’s safety in the Chuunin exams.”

“No,” said Hyourin, “Admitting that kind of thing makes me weak. I’m not supposed to show how I feel.” 

“Doesn’t hiding your emotions and allowing them to fester make you weak, rather than admitting to having them and letting them pass?” Eiki continued, “Admitting that you’re worried or scared is stronger than pretending that you’re not.”

“You wouldn’t understand,” said Hyourin. “You were never trained as a Shinobi like I was.”

“You’re right,” Eiki agreed, “I wasn’t. But I think there’s a difference between not allowing emotions to cloud your better judgment and blind you, than hiding them and never addressing them in the first place. You have emotions, and not dealing with them properly can adhere your performance. I want you at your best, sister.”

Hyourin was silent. She sat down on the side of her bed. There was silence. Maybe he was right, but could she genuinely admit to anything? She had told Sasuke she wanted him to be safe, and at the same time, she never honestly admitted just how concerned she was about him. It was more than just the Chuunin Exams. It was more than just the obvious dangers that came with being a Shinobi. Sasuke had taken an oath of revenge against his older brother. She had voiced her disapproval of his plans for revenge before, but she didn’t think he understood just how much it bothered her. She wanted him to pursue what he wanted without her getting in his way, but was it worth it if it was a path that would inevitably destroy him? She had tried to change his mind before with no avail. She gave up at one point, but the worry still lingered.

And she couldn’t admit any of it.

“Thanks, Eiki,” Hyourin finally said. “I guess I shouldn’t lie about the fact that I am worried. It’s an occupational hazard, I guess.”

Eiki smiled and crossed the room to where his sister sat. He placed his hand on her shoulder and looked at her in the eyes. “You’re welcome, sister,” he said, “I’m sure you won’t have to worry after tomorrow.” 

Hyourin doubted it, but she appreciated it nonetheless. At the very least, it helped her sleep better.

The next day was incredibly long and boring. Hyourin had nothing better to do, so she stood on her bedroom’s balcony and stared at the clouds as they floated by overhead. She cleared her mind by counting how many seconds were between each loud, low clap of the sōzu in the garden below the balcony (she counted fifteen seconds between each clap). To keep her hands busy, she mindlessly polished and sharpened the metal edges of her favorite tessen. She didn’t want to think about anything, so she distracted herself with menial tasks until something cave her cause to stop.

It must have been several hours into the afternoon before Hyourin heard someone knock on the front door. Hyourin didn’t move from the spot on her balcony, but she could still hear the conversation through her open door.

“Ah! Good afternoon, Asa-san!” Hyourin recognized the voice. It belonged to Rei. What was she doing there?

“Rei-san, it’s good to see you,” Hyourin heard her mother reply. “What brings you here?”

“Is Hyourin here?” Rei asked.

“Yes, she’s upstairs in her room, I think,” Asa replied, “Do you need to speak to her? I might have to go wake her up.”

“Erm, yes,” said Rei, “If you could bring her down here, that would be nice.”

“I’ll go get her now,” said Asa.

Hyourin turned and left her room immediately. She passed her mother on the stairs, but didn’t say anything when her mother said Rei was there. She nodded, and walked to the door where Rei was waiting. Asa walked outside the back door to tend to the garden.

“Have you, Tatsu, and Nakamora been behaving yourselves while I’ve been busy?” Rei asked.

“I guess,” said Hyourin with a shrug. “We haven’t gotten into fights or anything if that’s what you mean.”

“I suppose that’s progress,” said Rei.

“Is that all you came here to ask, sensei?”

Rei hesitated. “Erm, no,” she said, “I came here to tell you that, erm … well, I’m a good friend of Kakashi Hatake’s, and so we talk a lot, so I wouldn’t know this if he hadn’t told me, but you have a friend that’s a student of his, right? His name is Sasuke Uchiha, correct?”

“Yeah,” said Hyourin, “What about him? Did something happen?”

“Well, this morning, during the preliminary rounds of the exam, Kakashi left in the middle of the fights to take Sasuke to the hospital, and that’s where he is.”

“Eh?!” Hyourin gasped. “Is he okay?”

Rei raised her arms in defense. “I’m told it’s nothing too serious, don’t worry! But if you want to go see him, you should.”

Hyourin couldn’t decide if she was angry or relieved. She was silent for several minutes before bowing and saying, “Thank you, sensei, for letting me know. I … appreciate it.” She turned back inside of her house and ran into the kitchen. She stuffed a small bag with a few of the steamed pork buns from the night before, and she quickly pulled her sandals on before she ran out the door and straight to the hospital. She passed Rei on her way out of the estate’s gates, but she didn’t really care. She had to argue with several doctors and staff members at the hospital before she found Sasuke’s room and was permitted to enter. Hyourin entered the room and dropped the small bag of steamed pork buns on the table beside the bed before she crossed her arms and looked down at Sasuke.

Sasuke looked up at her with raised eyebrows and said, “I didn’t expect you see you here today.”

“What did you do?” Hyourin asked immediately.

“It’s nothing,” said Sasuke, “I’ll be out tomorrow morning.”

“What. Did. You. Do?” Hyourin repeated.

Sasuke paused for a few seconds before he said, “…I’ll tell you later.”

“Why can’t you just tell me now?”

“I don’t know how to explain what happened.”

Hyourin raised an eyebrow. “Like that doesn’t sound suspicious at all.” Hyourin could tell Sasuke was getting irritated with her by just noting a change in his expression. _Good_ , she thought, _let him get irritated_. 

“Nothing serious happened,” he said in a voice almost as stern as hers was, “You don’t need to be concerned.”

“Did you lose any blood?” Hyourin asked.

“I did, but they already replaced it with blood you already donated.”

“I see,” Hyourin mumbled. She sat down at a chair at the foot of Sasuke’s bed and propped her feet up.

“You can’t honestly expect for the life of a Shinobi to come without any injuries,” said Sasuke. “They’ll happen to everyone. They’ll happen to both of us.”

“I know,” said Hyourin, “It’s an obvious occupational hazard, I’m not an idiot. I just don’t want you to do anything stupid and get yourself killed. Or worse.”

Sasuke looked out the window. “I know what you’re talking about,” he said, “and nothing you say will change my mind. I’ve already made my decision.”

“It won’t be for lack of trying, at the very least.”

“You’re too much of an idealist.”

“Someone once told us that ideals are what push the world forward.”

Hyourin could see Sasuke’s hands clench into fists and his eyebrows furrow. “That was a long time ago,” he said.

She stood up from the chair and grabbed the bag of steamed pork buns she dropped on the table. “So,” she said, changing the subject, “Have you eaten anything today?”

“…I haven’t eaten well,” was his reply.

Hyourin pulled a pork bun out of the bag and used her free hand to grab Sasuke by the shirt collar. She pulled Sasuke in her direction with a yank of his collar and shoved a pork bun into his mouth. He glared up at her. Sasuke couldn’t argue with her if his mouth was full. Hyourin smirked. She was pleased with herself until she saw a strange, black mark on the back of his neck, under his shirt collar where she pulled at it. Hyourin assumed that was what he couldn’t explain. She wondered if she should have asked him about it then, or if she should wait until he had an explanation for her. Would he ever have an explanation for her?

“Stop being weird,” she said before she sat back down.

He pulled the pork bun out of his mouth and said, “You first.”

While he was eating, Hyourin thought to herself. When was the last time she saw Sasuke smile? It must have been more than four years ago. She understood that his losses were painful, but she thought that she would have been enough. Hyourin thought it would be nice to see him smile again.


	9. Act 1: Chapter 8 - The Impossible Question

Kinomi sighed as she looked down at the mischievous smiles on her student’s faces. “ I taught you three better than to get your asses handed to you in the preliminary round of the Chuunin exams,” she said.

“My opponent was fighting dirty!” Masago argued. 

Hisato hung his head and said, “I have no excuse. It was a poor performance.” 

“I think,” said Natsui, “I was a little bit distracted.” 

"Distracted is putting it lightly!” Masago said, “You were asking all kinds of weird questions in the forest!” 

Kinomi raised her eyebrow, “Do I want to know what kind of questions these were?”

“Well,” said Natsui, “I was just thinking, I read a book a few weeks ago and ever since then I’ve been wondering…what does ‘love’ feel like? I don’t think I really understand it.”

“You have parents and a sister, right?” Kinomi asked. “Don’t you love them?”

“Not that kind of love,” said Natsui, “I know there are different kinds of love. There’s the love you feel for your family, the love you feel for your friends, the and love you feel for your mentors, but I know all of those. I’m talking about … the romantic kind of love.”

The team from Suna was meeting together in their suite on the Hyuuzu clan estate. Kinomi found that the suite was larger than what she expected: there was a living room and a kitchen, along with three bedrooms. She took one bedroom, Natsui took the other, and Masago and Hisato agreed to share the third bedroom. Each bedroom had its own bathroom. It was practically like a small house.

“Oh,” said Kinomi. She looked out the window. “I’ve never really been in love like that, so I can’t tell you.”

“My older sister once said that you can make love,” said Masago.

“This is hardly an appropriate conversation to be having,” said Kinomi.

“I don’t really see how it matters,” said Hisato, “You’ll find out eventually, won’t you?”

“I guess,” sighed Natsui, “but no one ever tells you what it feels like besides the fact that it feels good. I want to understand what it feels like now, so I’ll know when I’ve fallen in love with someone!”

“You’re too young to understand something like that, Natsui,” said Kinomi. “You should wait until you’re older, and then you can worry about what that feels like.”

Before Natsui could reply, Masago interrupted, “Speaking of being older, sensei, my birthday passed while we were taking the exams and I’m thirteen now! Can you tell me about Aiyoku-san, now?”

Kinomi looked down at Masago. He had a sense of genuine curiosity in his eyes, and a mischievous grin on his face. Her response to his request was a flat, “No,” before she turned her head back to the window.

“But why not?!” Masago whined.

“I may have considered it had you passed into the final of the exams,” said Kinomi, “But you all disappointed me.”

“That’s not fair,” Masago mumbled under his breath before he flopped backwards onto a chair. 

“Say, sensei,” said Natsui, “is something bothering you?”

“Sort of,” Kinomi admitted, “but it’s nothing important, really.” 

“If it’s bothering you,” said Hisato, “then it must be important.” 

Kinomi sighed. “Well,” she said,” I suppose I can tell you. It’s not really all that important, I guess, but something feels kind of … strange.” Before we left for the exam, and during it, none of the other Sunagakure Jounin were speaking to me, except for Yudai Fukusui.”

“Yudai Fukusui?” Natsui said, “that name sounds familiar.” 

Kinomi raised an eyebrow at her student. “You can’t have possibly met Yudai,” she said. 

Natsui shook her head. “I haven’t,” she agreed, “but that name does sound familiar.” There was silence, before Natsui realized, “I know where I’ve heard that name! There’s a girl from the Hyuuzu clan in Suna named Oniyuri, and her sensei’s name is Yudai Fukusui.” 

“I believe Yudai does have a student named Oniyuri Hyuuzu,” said Kinomi, “but what does that have to do with anything?”

“I was just trying to help,” said Natsui. 

Just as Natsui has finished her sentence, there was a knock at the door to the suite. Kinomi crossed the room to the door and pulled it open to find Sabureko Hyuuzu standing in front of her. 

“Umeboshi,” said Sabureko, “Do you have a moment?” She looked over Kinomi’s shoulder and took note of Natsui and her teammates before adding, “Alone?”

“Yes, Sabureko-sama,” said Kinomi. She quickly nodded to her students before she stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind her.

“Has anyone from Suna spoken to you since you arrived in Konoha?” Sabureko asked. 

“Not really,” said Kinomi, “the only person who’s spoken to me since I’ve gotten here is Yudai.”

“Fukusui, huh,” said Sabureko, “Well, I suppose that makes sense. He’s staying on the estate as well.”

“I fail to see how that matters,” said Kinomi.

“I just spoke to Fukusui,” said Sabureko, “And he says no one has spoken to him save for you. And you had to escort Aiyoku here, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” said Kinomi, “I don’t really see what you’re getting at here, Sabureko-sama.” 

“Then I’ll spell it out for you, Umeboshi,” said Sabureko, “Whenever a village plots against another village, they leave the Hyuuzu clan, and everyone associated with them, out of it.”

“That…sounds horrible,” Kinomi whispered. She had once been warned not to be too comfortable or too sincere around Sabureko, but such an act was hard to keep up. Especially if Suna was plotting against Konoha, and she wasn’t told about it.

Sabureko nodded. “We could easily stop a cross-village attack if we were warned about it, so no one invites us to the party. You don’t know why you had to escort Aiyoku here, do you?”

“No,” said Kinomi, “Just that Ninrui wasn’t available as her usual guard and she asked for me personally. I don’t really care to ask what she’s up to, given her … unique profession.” 

“Well, then,” said Sabureko, “I don’t want to jump to any conclusions and I wouldn’t want to worry you, but I’d be careful if I were you, especially if you plan on staying until the final round.” She turned around to walk off.

“I appreciate the warning,” said Kinomi. “Thank you for telling me, Sabureko-sama.”

Sabureko shrugged and said, “it’s nothing, really,” before she walked off. 

Kinomi opened the door to the suite and walked back in. There was a lot on her mind at that point, but she thought she’d rather discuss her thoughts with Yudai than with her students.

“Is something the matter, sensei?” Natsui asked.

“What was all that about, huh?” Masago asked.

“It was nothing important,” said Kinomi.


	10. Act 1: Chapter 9 - Preparation

Rei took in a deep breath when she looked at herself in the mirror that morning. She was going to meet with her students for the first time since the exams started, and she had yet to tell them of her agreement with her brother. She had to tell them.

As she walked toward the training grounds she arranged for her students, she prepared herself for every possible reaction. Would they be angry at her for agreeing to such a match without their consent? Would they be excited to be able to fight? She thought she knew her students well, but they could be so unpredictable at times. She guessed that, perhaps, their unpredictability meant that she didn’t really know them as well as she thought she did. At the very least, she thought they would not be able to blame this on each other. They would have to blame her for it. She didn’t really want more blame on her shoulders, but she guessed it was better than her students blaming each other for things none of them had any responsibility for.

She stopped on a busy market street on her way to the training grounds. A stall she was familiar with was selling her favorite melon bread. She thought maybe she should get a piece, and maybe she shouldn’t. In the end, she quickly bought a piece and happily ate I ton her way to the training grounds with a smile on her face. She didn’t want to waste any time being indecisive and the snack was a welcome distraction.

When Rei arrived at the training grounds, all three of her students were waiting for her silently. Hyourin laid back on the tree stump, Tatsu sat with his back against the tree stump with his eyes closed, and Nakamora was sitting at the edge of the stream while he was poking at something in the water with a stick. The silence was a stark difference from the usual arguing Rei was used to. 

“Is something the matter?” Rei asked when she approached her students from the opposite side of the stream. 

“I’m bored,” said Hyourin.

“I’m tired,” said Tatsu.

Nakamora said nothing and continued to poke at the water with a stick. 

“Well,” said Rei, “I, um, have a, erm … I’m not really sure how to put this.”

Tatsu opened his eyes and looked up at Rei. He asked, “Do we have a new mission?”

“Not exactly,” Rei answered. 

Nakamora looked up at his teacher and asked, “Then what is it?”

“Whatever it is,” said Hyourin, “you don’t seem very excited about it.”

Rei took in a deep breath. “No,” she said, “It’s nothing to be excited about unless you’ve been looking for a fight.” 

“It’s okay, Rei-sensei,” said Hyourin, “You can tell us.”

Rei took in another deep breath. “Before the exams began,” she said, “My brother approached me with a wager, and we made a deal. We agreed that during the final round of the Chuunin exams, our teams would fight one another.” Rei hung her head. “I’m sorry I arranged this without telling you, or asking you, but I had to.”

There was silence. Rei’s students didn’t seem as angered, upset, or excited as she thought they’d be. Nakamora looked up at her with a sad look, Tatsu looked confused, and she couldn’t really guess if Hyourin’s expression was angry or attempting to piece information together. 

Tatsu asked, “why would your brother want to challenge you to something like that?”

“It’s a long story,” Rei answered with a sigh. “He’s always blamed me for everything. My mother when I was born, and he blamed me. My father died when I became a Jounin, and my brother blamed me and took out his anger on me.” Rei looked away from her students and rubbed her own shoulders. “He did … terrible things to me. I guess he just wants validation that I really am the one that’s caused all of this.”

“Sensei,” said Hyourin, “You mentioned you set up a ‘wager’ with your brother. What did you mean by that?” There was a shake in Hyourin’s voice. She sounded like she was angry, and like she was trying to hold in her anger.

“Well,” said Rei, “That is … I’m not really sure how to put this.”

“What kind of wager id sitting between you and your brother?” Hyourin asked again. Her voice was getting louder. She was definitely angry. 

Rei took in a deep breath again and said, “Well, I said Raiju used to do terrible things to me. The water was if I won, he’d never touch me, or go anywhere near me ever again. But, if he won …” Rei hung her head. “If he wins, he gets to do whatever he wants with me. I … wouldn’t be surprised if he’s going to kill me.”

When she finished, there was silence. Tatsu was looking at the ground with a blank expression on his face, and Nakamora was grabbing his stomach as if he was going to be sick.

Hyourin was shaking. Her hands were clenched and her eyes looked as though they could burn through someone just by looking at them. Rei thought she looked as though she was going to explode as soon as she collected her thoughts together.

“I don’t care if he’s your brother or what!” Hyourin shouted, “What kind of sick, twisted scumbag does that to someone? To their own sister? What the fuck does he think he’s going to get out of blaming you on everything? What does he think beating you is going to get him? If I ever see that bastard, I’ll knock him flat on his ass!” 

“I don’t think you’ll need to do that,” said Rei. She held her arms up defensively. “You don’t need to fight Raiju, you just need to hold your own against his team and you’ll do alright.”

Hyourin jumped to her feet and continued, “I don’t give a damn! This kind of bullshit pisses me off! I’ll punch that asshole right in the face if I have to! He’s not going to get away with pulling this kind of garbage on someone like you!” 

Tatsu stood up and looked Hyourin in the face. “Hyourin, you can’t be serious,” he said. “Rei’s brother has a team. He’s probably a Jounin. There’s no way you could take him.”

“What, you think something like that is going to stop me?” Hyourin’s voice was loud on a normal day, but that day it was particularly loud. She was shouting at the top of her lungs, and Rei could only imagine that Tatsu’s ears were ringing. There was a possibility the entire village could hear her. “A scumbag like that deserves to get punched in the face, and I’m going to make sure that’s what he’s going to get!” 

Nakamora got to his feet. “Hyourin’s right!” He agreed. “Maybe with words that aren’t as bad, but we can’t lose to someone like that!” He paused briefly and hung his head. “You guys have always blamed me for not being able to enter the Chuunin exams…” He turned his head and looked up at his teammates, “but I won’t let you down! We won’t lose to someone this terrible!” 

Tatsu and Hyourin were silent. They exchanged an awkward glance. After a few moments of silence, Nakamora asked, “Did I say something wrong?”

Tatsu hung his head and said, “We really have treated you like garbage, haven’t we?”

“That makes me angrier,” said Hyourin. “That makes us no better than that good-for-nothing scumbag!” Hyourin turned to her orange-haired teammate and grabbed him by the shoulders. “We may have been jerks to you before, but you didn’t deserve any of that! You’re my teammate, you’re my comrade, and you’re not going to take the sole blame for anything we all hold responsibility for!”

“What she said,” Tatsu agreed. “And, I mean, hey, at least we never hit him, or anything, so we’re still better than that asshole.”

“Even if we wrongly blamed you for everything, Nakamora,” said Hyourin, “You’re still going to have to work hard. You’re still the weakest compared to Tatsu and myself, and if we want to pummel this asshole into the dirt where he belongs, you’re going to have to work hard for it, alright? No slacking!” 

“Yes!” Nakamora agreed, “We won’t let him win!” 

“And you!” Hyourin turned to Tatsu and grabbed the collar of his jacket and pulled his face only inches from hers. “You better not put anything on anyone else’s shoulders!” 

“Like you’re one to talk,” Tatsu replied, “When you were the one always blaming us for dragging you down!” 

Hyourin let go of Tatsu. His feet stumbled off balance and he fell face-first into the dirt at Hyourin’s feet.

“Then…I admit that I was wrong,” said Hyourin with hesitation. “We shifted blame to one another in the past, but we absolutely cannot afford to let ourselves drag each other down if we have any hope of defeating Rei-sensei’s shit-stain of a brother. We won’t gain anything by blaming each other for our own faults, or things that are beyond our control.” 

Tatsu got to his feet and brushed the dirt off of his clothes. He looked at Hyourin and nodded, “Then I agree.” 

Hyourin turned to Nakamora, who nodded in response and said, “I agree!” 

Tatsu, Hyourin, and Nakamora all turned to Rei. “I’m sorry about the way we’ve been behaving, sensei,” said Hyourin. “It’s not something I’m proud of. I don’t think any of us are proud of it, now that we realize how ridiculous we’ve been acting, but there’s no way any of us are going to let your brother treat you like this! I’m going to pound his sorry ass into dust!” 

Rei stood still in shock. She never expected a reaction from her students, she never expected to hear Hyourin’s explosion of anger against Raiju, and she never expected her students to agree on anything, much less promise to win the bet she made with her brother. Tears welled in Rei’s eyes while she processed everything her students had said to her. She couldn’t contain herself. She ran straight through the stream in the middle of the field and threw her arms around her students.

“Thank you,” she choked through her tears, “Thank you so much!” 

Nakamora said, “You’re welcome, sensei!” 

“Ugh,” groaned Tatsu, “does this mean we have to actually get along and hang out and actually be friends and stuff?”

“I hope not,” said Hyourin. 

Rei wiped her tears on her sleeves of her shirt and smiled. “One step at a time, I guess,” she said. “It’s been a long time since anyone agreed to stand up for me like that.”

Nakamora proudly proclaimed, “We’d do anything for our sensei!” 

“I’d help you prepare more,” said Rei, “but I have no idea what kind of abilities my brothers’ students have. You should prepare for the worst.” Rei smiled, “but I believe in you. I’m proud of the progress you’ve made since we formed this team.”

Tatsu asked, “They’d be about our age, wouldn’t they? It shouldn’t be that difficult.” 

“He got his team last year,” said Rei, “So they would probably be a year older than you are.”

“Doesn’t matter,” said Hyourin, “I’ll still pound their asses into dust, and then I’ll punch that asshole in the—” 

“Just focus on fighting his team, Hyourin,” said Rei, “we need determination like yours. It’s what’s going to help us win.”

“Well, then,” said Hyourn, “We’re not going to beat his team just standing around like this.”


End file.
